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UNC Charlotte : the magazine of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for alumni and friends

UNC Charlotte : the magazine of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for alumni and friends

UNC Charlotte The magazine of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte for Alumni and Friends • v17 q3 • 2010
Places just beneath
the surface
Alumnus makes art his business
UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | chancel lor ’s let ter
We are as
committed as
ever to making
the educational
and co-curricular
experiences at
UNC Charlotte the
very best that
they can be.
Where We Stand: Remaining Mission-Minded
In our last issue I wrote about the challenges
confronting the Governor and members of the
General Assembly in assembling a state budget
while grappling with a slow economic recovery
and uncertain state revenues. For a good part
of this summer, it appeared that the outlook
for the University budget was extremely poor
and that the campus would again have to make
large reductions in classroom offerings, student
support, and administrative services. In the
last weeks of the legislative session, however, a
consensus was reached that tuition increases
larger than previously planned would have to be
part of the solution.
At UNC Charlotte, our Trustees accepted
my recommendation that annual tuition for
resident North Carolina undergraduate students
be increased by $708. Trustees also supported
the allocation of additional campus resources for
financial aid for needy students, supplementing
approximately $34 million in additional aid
allocated by the General Assembly. In all, while
not a perfect solution, the compromise reached
was one that will permit us to continue to serve
our students with an adequate array of courses
and supply of instructors. At the same time, we
recognize that the increased financial burden
upon some of our students and their families
will be challenging. As a result, in addition to
supplementing the financial aid packages of the
neediest students, we will debut a new textbook
rental program that promises to save students
hundreds of dollars in purchasing costs.
Noteworthy among the budget decisions
was the very positive news that UNC Charlotte
will receive the remaining $3 millon of a $5
million request partially funded last year to
support the hiring of faculty and technical staff
for our new $71 million Energy Production and
Infrastructure Center. These funds and the new
building will help us respond comprehensively
to the demand for new engineers to serve the
growing number of energy-related industries in
the greater Charlotte region.
Another important development was final
approval by the General Assembly and the
Governor of the construction of facilities needed
to launch the UNC Charlotte football program;
in fact, it’s a done deal — we will field a football
team in 2013. After more than three years of
study and analysis, the Board of Trustees and
the UNC Board of Governors approved plans
to move forward with the football program
using a combination of student fees, private
contributions, and seat license and ticket sales.
Among the first signs of forward progress will be
construction starting next spring on a permanent,
15,000-seat stadium, field house, and practice
fields on campus. I encourage you to read more
about this monumental occasion on page 3 of
the magazine.
In the meantime, while we have been toasting
the final approval of football, a very exciting
“first” has taken place. The 15 students selected
as the inaugural class of Levine Scholars have
returned from the journey of a lifetime. As
part of our premiere, merit-based scholarship
program, Levine Scholars take part in a 25-day
leadership expedition in Wyoming. The scholars
left on July 11, and we are ecstatic that all have
returned unscathed, and a little transformed,
from what was an arduous and enlightening
trip. They experienced the beauty of my former
stomping grounds, got to know each other,
and participated in activities to enhance their
leadership skills. I wouldn’t be surprised if a
few of them returned to Charlotte with a new
taste for country music, as did I.
While traversing the wilderness, the students
documented the experience using hand-held
digital cameras. You can see the American
outback through their eyes on UNC
Charlotte’s YouTube channel.
With this news, we usher in the 2010-2011
academic year. We expect to exceed 25,000
students for the first time in our history, with
enrollment growth fueled principally by students
staying in school longer while waiting for jobs to
open up and increased demand for our graduate
programs. As the federal stimulus money leaves
the state budget next year, there will certainly
be challenges ahead. I can assure you, however,
that we are as committed as ever to making
the educational and co-curricular experiences
at UNC Charlotte the very best that they can
be and to fully delivering upon our mission as
North Carolina’s urban research university.
Cordially,
Philip L. Dubois
Chancellor
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 1
contents | UNC CHARLOTTE
On the cover:
UNC Charlotte alumnus Duy Huynh has enjoyed success as an artist and proprietor of Lark and Key
gallery. This painting, among his latest works, is titled “Transfer of Grace (2),” acrylic on canvas.
features
3 Done Deal! - Football
Gets Final Approval
8 Bioinformatics - Seeking
Great Discoveries
in Nutrition
10 A Gallery of One’s Own
18 Unearthing the
Origins of Empire
24 Tell It Like It Was
28 The Big Picture - Model
U.N. at UNC Charlotte
34 Helping Women
Faculty ADVANCE
departments
4 News Briefs
16 49ers Notebook
22 Center Stage
38 Class Notes
40 Building Blocks
41 Perspective
stake your claim profiles
7 Kaitlyn Tokay
14 Shannon McCallum
26 Nicole Cheslak
36 Harvey Murphy
8
18
28
2 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | edi tor ’s desk
Diversity That Enriches
Diversity – of thought, of expression, of life experiences,
of endeavor – really is essential to building greatness in a
campus community. This edition of UNC Charlotte highlights
diversity even more so than other recent editions. Our editorial
and design team have done a great job presenting this for our
readers, so please, as you page through this edition, give some
thought to what a wondrous community of people comprise
your University today.
Examples: Artist and alum Duy Huynh merges an
immigrant’s perspective into his paintings that reflect
geographical and cultural displacement. Professor Akin
Ogundiran actually digs for history in his native Africa,
unearthing knowledge about the nature of empire, wherever
it may develop. Student Kaitlyn Tokay, a self-espoused “freegan” goes to great
lengths to salvage what others waste. Student-athlete Shannon McCallum
is turning a disadvantaged childhood into a successful college career. The
University’s ADVANCE program is helping female academicians climb the career
ladder. This treasure of divergent perspectives and experiences greatly enrich
our campus community, but even beyond that, it enhances lives in the greater
Charlotte community.
I am definitely biased, but I’m going to repeat a favorite assertion: UNC
Charlotte does good! It is an absolute gem, and like a gem it enriches those who
own it. Own UNC Charlotte.
Regards,
Volume 17, Number 3
Philip L. Dubois
Chancellor
Gene Johnson
Chair of the Board of Trustees
Niles Sorensen
Interim Vice Chancellor for University
Relations and Community Affairs
Editor
Director of Public Relations
John D. Bland
Creative Director
Fabi Preslar
Contributing Writers
Rhiannon Bowman
Phillip Brown
Cliff Mehrtens
Paul Nowell
Lisa A. Patterson
Lynn Roberson
Buffie Stephens
Staff Photographer
Wade Bruton
Circulation Manager
Cathy Brown
Design & Production
SPARK Publications
UNC Charlotte is published four times a
year by The University of North Carolina
at Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd.,
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
ISSN 10771913
Editorial offices:
Reese Building, 2nd floor
The University of North Carolina
at Charlotte
9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223
704.687.5825; Fax: 704.687.6379
The University of North Carolina at
Charlotte is open to people of all races and
is committed to equality of educational
opportunity and does not discriminate
against applicants, students or employees
based on race, color, national origin, religion,
sex, sexual orientation, age or disability.
Printed on
recycled paper
17,500 copies of this publication were printed
at a cost of $.52 per piece, for a total cost of $9,210.
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
John D. Bland, Editor
Director of Public Relations
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 3
Done Deal!
Charlotte 49ers Football Gets Final Approval
It’s official. The Charlotte 49ers will start
football in the fall of 2013.
In early August, nearly three and a half
years after the UNC Charlotte Board of
Trustees authorized a study of the feasibility
of establishing an intercollegiate football
program, Governor Beverly Perdue signed
the University Non-Appropriated Capital
Project bill that included the funding plan
for the 49ers football stadium construction,
effectively placing the final piece of the 49ers
football puzzle.
“With the Governor’s signature
endorsing the General Assembly’s approval
of construction of our football-related
facilities, we open a new chapter in the
dynamic history of UNC Charlotte,” said
UNC Charlotte Chancellor Philip L.
Dubois. “The path to this point has been
a lengthy but carefully considered one,
from the Trustees’ decision in late 2006
to authorize a study of the feasibility of
football to final approval by the Board of
Governors this past spring.”
The 49ers have cleared no less than
eight hurdles since that Sept.18, 2008
recommendation – most in unanimous
fashion.
The Charlotte 49ers will play football
in 2013.
“We’ve done it,” said 49ers Director
of Athletics Judy Rose. “To think that
what was started way back with the initial
feasibility study – and even before that with
the grassroots movement – has now received
the final go-ahead – it’s extremely satisfying.
This has not been an easy process, but
nothing worthwhile ever is. There are
no more ifs, no more votes, no more
approvals. We will play football in 2013.
It’s a done deal.”
The 49ers first pushed forward with the
premise to start a football program when an
appointed Football Feasibility Committee,
chaired by community leader Mac Everett,
presented its unanimous recommendation
to Dubois in February of 2008. On Sept. 16
of that year, two days before the Chancellor
was to make his recommendation after
months of his own due diligence, the
University’s student body held a pep
rally in support of adding football. With
the student’s backing, the University
gave its approval, first in the form of the
Chancellor’s recommendation and then on
Nov. 13, 2008 when the University’s Board
Continued on p. 17
“There are no
more ifs, no more
votes, no more
approvals. We
will play football
in 2013. It’s
a done deal.”
4 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
“We have also shown that the same
strategy can be used to control the tool
temperature, which is strongly related to
the tool wear, and tool wear is a big driver
for difficult-to-machine materials including
titanium, stainless steel, and nickel alloys,”
Smith said. “For this reason, the technology
has applications in power turbines and jet
engines, for example.”
Africana Studies to
Collaborate with Friends
of Historic Cemetery
UNC Charlotte’s Africana Studies
department announced that it is
collaborating with The Friends of Old
Westview Cemetery, Inc. to develop a long-range
plan to help restore the more than
150-year-old cemetery in Wadesboro.
Since the passing of the cemetery’s
caretaker in the 1960s, the cemetery has
become overgrown and neglected, according
to friends of the cemetery.
Participating in the Martin Luther King
Day of Service earlier this year, members
of the Africana Studies Club, a student
organization at the University, led a
project which involved cleaning and
documenting grave markers. The
collaboration grew out of the service project
and was recently announced during a
Friends of Old Westview Cemetery board of
directors meeting.
Old Westview Cemetery was founded
in the mid-19th century and has served as
the primary burial ground for Wadesboro’s
African-American community. Many
citizens who contributed to Wadesboro’s
post-emancipation African-American
community are buried in Old Westview.
Researchers Noted for
Industrial Innovation
A research team of engineers from the
U.S. Department of Energy’s Y-12 National
Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and
UNC Charlotte has won a coveted 2010
“R&D 100 Award” from R&D Magazine.
The innovation award, which is given
annually to recognize the 100 most
technologically significant new products
of the year, was for the development of a
sophisticated new method that eliminates
the formation of long, dangerous strips of
metal (“chips”) in the process of machining
ductile materials.
The team included William E. Barkman
and Edwin F. Babelay Jr. from Y-12 and
K. Scott Smith, Thomas S. Assaid, Justin
T. McFarland, and David A. Tursky
from UNC Charlotte, and former UNC
Charlotte students Bethany Woody (now at
InsituTec) and David Adams (now at Moore
Nanotechnology Systems).
Smith, who headed the university-based
group and is professor and chair in UNC
Charlotte’s Department of Mechanical
Engineering, noted that ductile metals
“have a tendency to make long stringy
chips, which tangle up and often make
a big ‘bird’s nest.’” These tangled chips
can damage the workpiece or cause
operator injury.
Manual removal of the chips is a
dangerous process, Smith notes, so the
innovation is likely to prevent numerous
injuries. The procedure will also
have a significant impact on costs in
metal manufacturing.
UNC CHARLOTTE | news br iefs
news briefs
Fellowship Honors Susan Burgess
To honor the legacy of long-time public servant,
city council member and mayor pro tem Susan
Burgess, who died in June, UNC Charlotte is
establishing an endowed fellowship in her name.
The Susan M. Burgess Fellowship in Public
Administration at UNC Charlotte will be given
annually to help a master’s student become a
community leader.
An at-large member of city council since 1999,
Burgess chaired the City Council Housing and
Neighborhood Development and Economic
Development committees during her tenure. In
addition to serving as mayor pro tem for six years,
Burgess served on the Charlotte Mecklenburg
Board of Education from 1990 to 1997, the last two years as chair.
According to friends and admirers, they wished to establish a lasting legacy
in her honor, in the city she loved and served. Her friends felt it fitting that the
fellowship be created at UNC Charlotte because so many city, county and police
members are graduates of the Master in Public Administration program, housed in
the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ Department of Political Science.
Contributions to the Susan M. Burgess Fellowship in Public Administration can
be made through the UNC Charlotte Foundation Web site https://giving.uncc.
edu; click on the “make a gift” link or mail contributions to the UNC Charlotte
Foundation, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, N.C. 28223.
Susan Burgess
Ed Babelay, Bill Barkman, Scott Smith, David Tursky, Thomas Assaid, Bethany Woody,
Justin McFarland, David Adams
Bella the “Corpse
Flower” Blooms Again!
In June, UNC Charlotte’s titan arum bloomed again. Known at
the University as Bella, the titan arum or “corpse flower” is
exceptionally rare and known for its pungent stench.
Discovered in 1878, titan arums are the world’s largest
flowering structures and grow wild in the rainforests of
Sumatra. The plant rarely flowers in the jungle and even
more rarely when grown in cultivation.
The flowering structure – which can reach nearly nine
feet and open to a diameter of three to four feet – opens
only for a few days. Thousands of tiny flowers are hidden
inside the central column, called the spadix. On the day
the flower opens, the plant smells repulsive (similar
to rotting flesh) and can be detected from half a
mile away.
More than 2,400 visitors
came to the greenhouse to
see – and smell – Bella.
The bloom lasted only three
days, and the putrid smell
lasted only the first day, but
that’s when Bella was the
most spectacular.
UNC Charlotte’s Bella has
only bloomed once before,
on July 1, 2007. She was nine
years old, which is relatively young
for a titan to bloom. At the time,
UNC Charlotte was only the 20th U.S.
institution to cultivate a bloom and the first
in the Southeast. More than 4,000 people
visited campus to view the spectacular plant.
The cemetery is currently on the “Study
List” of historical places and is eligible for
placement on the National Register.
UNC Charlotte faculty and students
will conduct research on the historical
significance of the all-black cemetery
and develop public educational
programs on the history of Wadesboro
and the biographies of those buried in
Old Westview.
Undergrads Get
Prestigious Scholarships
for Study Abroad
Four UNC Charlotte undergraduate
students have received prestigious
Benjamin Gilman International
Scholarships to study abroad during the
2010-11 academic year.
Jessica Craig, Hugh Kinsey, Eber Pena
and Lilia Shaforostov will receive awards
between $3,000 and $5,000. Craig, a
junior majoring in social work, will spend
the entire year at the University of Ghana.
Computer science major and Japanese
minor Kinsey will spend the year at
Japan’s Gakushuin University. Heidelburg
University in Germany is the destination
for Pena, a German and history major
who is pursuing a minor in international
studies. Shaforostov, a junior pre-business
major, also will attend the University of
Ghana for the fall.
“The best education comes from
experience, and I want to go further than
the routine of making it to class,” said
Shaforostov, who views study abroad as
part of a “real” education. “I want to
experience learning with someone who
has a different perception of it, and I
want to experience this journey as
something that can be passed on to
others – to remind everyone that there
is a whole world out there.”
49er Factoid: Alums Abound
Did you know that 12 percent of all
college graduates in the Charlotte region
are alums of UNC Charlotte? It’s true.
According to data obtained by the Office
of Development, the Charlotte region is
home to more than 200,000 49ers.
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 5
Bella, the titan arum, bloomed in June.
6 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | news br iefs
news briefs
Textbook Rental Program
Wil Help Students Economize
Barnes & Noble at UNC Charlotte
will provide a textbook rental option for
Fall 2010 semester. The new program will
allow students to rent textbooks for 45
percent of the cost of purchasing a
new textbook.
Students will be able to rent books in the
store or from the bookstore’s Web site.
The new rental option is a cooperative
commitment between UNC Charlotte
Business Services and Barnes & Noble
College Booksellers for textbook
affordability.
Textbook rental program features:
• Rental period is for the duration of the
semester. Books are due back at the
bookstore 10 days after the last day of
finals. Students can return the books in
person or mail them to the bookstore.
• Students may highlight or mark the rented
books just as they would a purchased book
with plans to sell it back.
• Students may pay the rental fees by cash,
check, credit, debit, 49er Account or Barnes
& Noble gift cards. (For security purposes,
a valid credit card must also be provided
regardless of the rental payment method).
• Students may convert their rental to a
purchase during the first two weeks of class.
• An e-mail to remind students to return
their books will be sent near the end of the
semester. Books not returned, or returned
in unsalable condition, will be subject to
replacement and processing fees.
“UNC Charlotte is dedicated to giving
our students as many options as possible
and to let students drive the decisions about
textbook affordability,” said Karen Natale,
the University’s bookstore and licensing
contract manager. “Whether they want
new, used, digital, open source, or rentable
textbooks, it’s all available at the University.”
Nursing Students Win
Video Competition
In May, three teams of UNC Charlotte
nursing students topped the competition
for the Innovative Nursing Education
Technologies (iNet) “Get the Picture Patient
Education Video” awards.
Each group of senior nursing students
won $1,000, and the videos were showcased
at the iNET 2010 conference “Enhancing
Nursing Curriculum with Technology: High
Touch, High Tech” held at UNC Charlotte
in August.
Innovative Nursing Education Technologies
(iNET) is a collaborative among the schools of
nursing at Duke University, UNC Charlotte
and Western Carolina University. It is federally
funded through the Health Services Research
Academy. Nursing teams developed a video
to educate the public about a selected list of
health concerns, including smoking cessation,
hypertension and risk factors of stroke.
This summer, a movie version of the book, “The Fat Boy
Chronicles,” premiered at UNC Charlotte. Almost 1,000
people attended the premiere at the Student Union, providing
UNC Charlotte with another chance to showcase the campus
to children, parents and local civic leaders.
Inspired by a true story, “The Fat Boy Chronicles” follows
14-year-old Jimmy as he enters the freshman year of high
school and chronicles his struggle with bullying and obesity.
Based on the book by Diane Lang and Michael Buchanan,
the movie follows Jimmy’s adjustment to a new school.
Through his eyes, heart, and journal, we share the physical,
psychological, and social consequences of obesity. Jimmy is a
survivor, but while teens, parents, and educators may applaud
his accomplishments, they also learn about what life is like for
vulnerable teens facing daily self-doubt and discrimination.
The most recent national Youth Risk Behavior Survey indicated
that the largest percentage of schoolchildren who are bullied
attributed that bullying to body size. The premiere of “The Fat
Boy Chronicles” was the first step in launching Charlotte, Get
Your Move On!, a community initiative modeled after Let’s Move,
a nationwide campaign to tackle childhood obesity.
The Charlotte screening is a collaboration among Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Schools; Teen Health Connection, a community
health partner of Levine Children’s Hospital; UNC Charlotte;
and publisher Sleeping Bear Press.
Stars of “The Fat Boy Chronicles,” gathered here with Chancellor Dubois
and Lisa Lewis Dubois, attended the national movie premiere on campus.
‘The Fat Boy Chronicles: The
Movie’ Premieres on Campus
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 7
stake your claim prof i le | UNC CHARLOTTE
The refrigerator door swings open to
reveal fully stocked shelves of food —
far more than one person would need.
According to Kaitlyn Tokay, that’s kind of
the point. Tokay removed all of the food
from a dumpster at a nearby grocery store.
The UNC Charlotte junior hasn’t paid for
groceries in well over a month.
During her experiment in “dumpster
diving,” Tokay has rescued countless cakes,
pies, loaves of bread, fruits and vegetables,
and even dairy and meat products, from
the trash heap. The international business
major practices freeganism, a lifestyle whose
adherents buy and use as little as possible.
From the clothes she wears to the bike
she rides to and from her job as a YMCA
lifeguard and swim instructor, Tokay lives
the principles of freeganism. Tokay recently
decided to extend the practice to what
she eats.
While dumpster diving fits with
her freegan lifestyle, Tokay said she is
experimenting with the practice to raise
awareness of poverty, homelessness and
wastefulness.
Taking the Plunge
Dumpster Diving for a Cause
Kaitlyn Tokay
hopes to
raise awareness
of poverty,
homelessness
and
wastefulness. Continued on p. 31
Kaitlyn Tokay, who espouses a “freegan” lifestyle, was surprised by the amount of food items wasted on a
daily basis. Pictured here are some of the items she recently salvaged from a local grocery store dumpster.
By Lisa A. Patterson
8 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
Cory Brouwer accepts the fact most
people can only achieve a limited grasp of
his work as the director of UNC Charlotte’s
Bioinformatics Services Division at the
North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC).
And that’s just fine with Brouwer, who
realizes his scientific expertise is narrowly
focused but increasingly important to
mankind. He recently came aboard from the
pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. to oversee
the University’s bioinformatics research
program at David Murdock’s $1 billion
brainchild in nearby Kannapolis.
Scientists from several other leading
universities – including Duke, UNC Chapel
Hill and other UNC system schools – will
benefit from the work done by UNC
Charlotte researchers as they work on their
own research.
“This is a great opportunity for UNC
Charlotte to introduce our capabilities in
this vital area to other leading scientists,”
Brouwer said in an interview in his office at
NCRC. “When you are only a short walk
down the hall from these researchers, it’s
much easier to overcome some of the things
that can distance us. It leads to better and
more effective collaboration.”
That’s why UNC Charlotte decided to
open the division in the Core Laboratory
Building at the NCRC, a 350-acre research
park that will be home to the research
programs of biotechnology companies as well
as university and medical research programs.
There they will work, often in
collaboration with their peers, in hopes of
achieving Murdock’s vision to make NCRC
a nucleus for great discoveries in nutrition,
health and biotechnology research.
Brouwer said the UNC Charlotte team
will look for opportunities to collaborate
with researchers from private industry
and other universities on their own
groundbreaking work.
Some of those projects include:
• UNC Chapel Hill’s Nutrition Research
Institute will develop innovative
approaches to understand the role of diet
and activity in normal brain development,
cancer prevention, and the prevention and
treatment of obesity.
• The North Carolina State University
Fruit and Vegetable Science Institute
will utilize emerging technologies for
plant improvement and human health
benefits. The goal is to develop a new
generation of fruits and vegetables with
advanced nutritional and horticultural
characteristics.
Researchers from Duke University are
conducting the so-called MURDOCK Study,
which has been compared with the 1948
Framingham Heart Study that followed
generations of residents of the city in
Massachusetts. Researchers expect to recruit
some 50,000 people from the Cabarrus and
Kannapolis areas, sequence their genomes,
and identify associations to disease.
In addition, researchers from Appalachian
State University, North Carolina Central
University, N.C. A&T State University and
UNC Greensboro are setting up operations
for various research projects in the Core Lab.
Brouwer received a doctorate in
molecular biology at Iowa State University
and started his career in the fledgling
bioinformatics department at Pioneer Hi-
Bred. After helping build the group there he
moved to Connecticut to join a company
called CuraGen and spent several years in
the biotech world. Later he moved over to
large pharma working for Pfizer, first in
Connecticut, but most recently directing
a computational sciences group in the
United Kingdom.
His background is in bioinformatics,
which uses powerful computers to solve
complex problems in biology. Without
bioinformatics, he said, researchers would
Great Discoveries
in Nutrition
Bioinformatics stakes its claim at N.C. Research Campus
By Paul Nowell
The Core Lab at N.C. Research Campus
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 9
never be able to process the huge amount of
information the biotech discovery process
now generates.
For example, none of the powerful
antiviral drugs approved in recent years
would have come to the market without the
use of bioinformatics to crunch the data.
Brouwer compares it to a tool most
people can understand: a spreadsheet. That
was what researchers had at their disposal
before the advent of bioinformatics.
“You could never fit all the gigabytes
and even terabytes of data needed for one
experiment on one Excel spreadsheet,” he
said. “You need our expertise to process all
this data and we have the critical mass needed
for these researchers to do their work.”
UNC Charlotte is invested in
bioinformatics. In August 2009, the
University’s Bioinformatics Research Center
(BRC) moved into a new $35 million
building on the Charlotte Research Institute
Campus of UNC Charlotte. The building
offers space for both wet and dry laboratories,
and includes core facilities for molecular
biology, proteomics, and computing.
“The work being done in life sciences and
biotechnology in the 21st Century is really
equivalent to what was being done in physics
and electronics in the 20th Century,” said
Larry Mays, director of UNC Charlotte’s
Bioinformatics Center. “It’s vitally important
for this university to be actively engaged in
this biotechnology enterprise.”
The BRC took a leadership role in
developing bioinformatics programs in
collaboration with the developers of the
NCRC. Brouwer and his colleagues will
focus on the development of novel analytical
methods for knowledge discovery in large
biological datasets.
“The NCRC provides us with a real
opportunity for UNC Charlotte to be
closely involved in this cutting-edge work,”
Mays said. “One of the key problems facing
biotechnology is trying to make sense of
the enormous amount of data in these
research projects.”
Research at the division will enable
basic and applied researchers to ask and
answer complex questions in molecular and
population biology, to manage and navigate
the vast data sets that are generated by
modern molecular biology methods, and to
translate the results into practical benefits
through understanding of the interacting
effects of health, nutrition, development,
and behavior.
Mays said UNC Charlotte’s presence in
the Core Lab at NCRC also gives faculty
members an opportunity to develop new
technological tools for the future. Besides
Brouwer, other UNC Charlotte faculty
members are working at NCRC, including
Ann Loraine and Xiuxia Du .
Finally, Mays said, the Bioinformatics
Services Division provides a rich training
ground for students to learn the skills
necessary to work in the field.
Murdock’s signature can be found
throughout the Core Lab Building, from
the imported Italian marble floors and rare
furniture to the distinctive yellow paint
(Murdock’s favorite color) on almost every
wall in the Core Lab.
Even the brightly-colored mural on
the ceiling above the lobby pays tribute
to his nutritional beliefs – it features a
cornucopia of fruits and vegetables. The
311,000-square-foot Core Lab Building
will house $150 million of state-of-the-art
scientific equipment that is available for use
by tenant universities and companies.
The most celebrated piece of equipment
is the Bruker 950-megahertz nuclear
magnetic resonance spectrometer, which
Sheetal Ghelani, business development
manager at the David H. Murdock Research
Institute, described as “the largest of its kind
in the Western Hemisphere.”
The two-story, eight-ton machine will
significantly enhance key areas of research,
such as drug development and nutrition.
The machine will allow scientists to deduce
the structure of larger and more complex
molecules and hopefully lead to discoveries
of new therapies.
As she led visitors on a tour of the Core
Lab Building, Ghelani pointed out some
of the technology available to the UNC
Charlotte researchers and their counterparts
from other universities, medical centers and
private businesses.
“What we really have here is an incredible
capacity; it’s not that we have equipment
that is completely unique,” she said. “What
is unique about this place is that we have
all these labs under one roof and there’s
unlimited potential to put the pieces
together to solve some large puzzles. “
Paul Nowell is media relations manager
in the Office of Public Relations.
“It’s vitally important
for this university
to be actively engaged
in this biotechnology
enterprise.”
Bioinformatics uses powerful computers to help solve complex problems in biology.
Gallery A
ofOne’s
Own
By Lisa A. Patterson
10 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
Local artist and UNC Charlotte alumnus Duy
Huynh has enjoyed a successful career making
paintings that demonstrate technical prowess
and imagination. Huynh and partner Sandy
Snead are the proprietors of Lark and Key
gallery, with locations in NoDa and South End.
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 11
feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
Stories in the form of paintings surround
Duy Huynh. All along the red brick walls,
ethereal figures float untethered against
earth-tone backgrounds that appear lit from
within. The paintings give off a soft glow,
contributing to the welcoming ambiance
of the Lark and Key Gallery in Charlotte’s
North Davidson neighborhood.
Huynh sits, clearly at ease amidst the
worlds he has created. He begins to tell his
story, starting at the beginning.
The Vietnamese-born artist and UNC
Charlotte alumnus emigrated to the United
States in 1981 with his parents and two
siblings. His family was among the massive
wave of refugees, or Boat People, to depart
Communist-controlled Vietnam in the
aftermath of the fall of Saigon.
Under the new communist government,
many people who supported the old
government were sent to “re-education
camps” and others to “new economic
zones.” More than one million people were
imprisoned without formal charges or trials,
and thousands were abused or tortured.
An uncertain future held far greater
appeal to hundreds of thousands of refugees
than the poverty and destruction of the
Vietnamese homeland.
“A lot of us were desperate for a way out
of the country and were willing to risk our
lives to get out. I was way too young to
understand the gravity of the whole trip,”
Huynh said. “I remember bits and parts – a
lot of dark, water, I remember sometimes
on the boat there wasn’t any food, and other
kids crying,” Huynh recalled. “My parents
said we were the best kids on the boat
because we were so well behaved – so much
so that they the others thought we were
hiding food from them.”
The figures in Huynh’s paintings are
neither here nor there – they occupy a space
somewhere between consciousness and the
deeper recesses of the mind. They point to a
place just beneath the surface, free from the
constraints of language, a place most of us
might only ever access in dreams.
The Boat People were rescued by the U.S.
Navy. They were moved from refugee camps
in Thailand and the Phillipines before
gaining sponsorship by a Buddhist temple
and thereby entry into Pomona, Calif.
“We were just really thankful to finally
make it to the states. I didn’t even know we
had arrived in America,” Huynh
said. “It was a total change from
the camps, and I really liked it.”
One, two, three. That was the
extent of Huynh’s English. The
six-year-old was enrolled in ESL
classes and entered public school
with a limited vocabulary and a
talent for drawing.
Chalk Board Child
Some of Huynh’s most
prominent memories of childhood
in Pomona include artistic
implements and aspirations.
Times were tough, money was
tight. Very few families in Huynh’s
neighborhood had discretionary
income to spend on toys, so the
children resorted to imagination for
their entertainment.
“I had a friend who lived close to
us and when I went to his house we
would play with a chalk board of all
things. I remember drawing my own comic
book adventures on the chalk board,”
Huynh said. “One of the earliest paintings
I did in college was a piece called ‘Chalk
Board Child.’ That piece has a lot of good
memories for me.”
Before Huynh mastered the language
or understood American cultural norms,
he tapped into the power of art as a
medium for communication. Handing
a classmate a drawing became a way to
forge connections across the language
barrier and make friends.
Huynh quickly moved beyond
coloring books and chalk boards
and onto more elaborate comics
and cartoons. Known as the “class
artist,” Huynh was interested in
painting but intimidated by the
medium. He nurtured his passion
by creating backdrops for school
programs and studying graffiti and
“A lot of us were desperate for a way
out of the country and were willing
to risk our lives to get out.”
12 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
“Art seemed
instantly
gratifying – I
could make
something
tangible.
That still
motivates
me.”
comic book art. Looking back, he says his
career path was clear as early as the
third grade.
“Art seemed instantly gratifying – I
could make something tangible. That still
motivates me,” Huynh said.
Eager for a change of pace, Huynh’s
family relocated to Charlotte in 1994. The
high school senior was immediately struck
by the number of trees lining the city’s
streets, filling its neighborhoods – the trees
were as prolific in Charlotte as the concrete
pylons supporting vast expanses of southern
California freeway.
A man and woman rest gently in each
other’s arms cradled by the branches of a
great tree, its curled roots visible below the
ground’s surface. The painting, “Place of
Steadiness,” suggests respite.
Huynh’s natural talent and enthusiasm
for art were the foundation for his entry
into UNC Charlotte as an art major. But
the many transformational experiences
Huynh had while an undergraduate student
laid the groundwork for his career as a
working artist.
As a freshman, Huynh bought into the
accepted wisdom that graphic design is the
only way to make money from the arts.
It wasn’t long before Huynh tired of
graphic design and decided to concentrate
on illustration. That is, until he took a
painting class as a sophomore. Numerous
painting classes and multiple
influential professors later, Huynh
was hooked. He graduated from
UNC Charlotte with concentrations
in painting and illustration and has
since gone back to the University
several times to speak to senior
seminar classes.
Huynh’s fellow students played
as much a role in his education as
his professors.
“I had already started showing my
work when I was still in school. Me and
four other guys got together and rented
a space called the Wrightnow Gallery, in
NoDa. We rented the space for a month,
split the cost and put on our first public
exhibitions. That was my first taste of doing
a gallery exhibition. Most of us weren’t
really that interested in selling work – it was
just having the exposure to it.”
After that Huynh sought every
opportunity to show his artwork. It could
be in a coffee shop, a friend’s restaurant, at
a music venue – he wanted his work “out
there,” and he wanted to know what people
thought of it.
Huynh was doing what he loved, but he
also had to pay the bills. He waited tables,
washed dishes, worked for a gallery in the
mall delivering artwork, worked the cash
register at Hardees, and even did the 9 to 5
at a company that specialized in stage design
and backdrops for performances. All of
those experiences served as motivation for
the artist to keep creating.
And then he gave up paying the bills,
sort of. When Huynh secured space at an
uptown studio, he gained the exposure
he needed.
“They were doing a lot of group shows.
I fell in love with the whole Bohemian
starving artist life there – I gave up my
apartment and lived out of the studio for
a while without a shower or a kitchen,”
Huynh said. However, “I didn’t live there
too long because you’re not supposed to,”
he noted. “You definitely learn to
be resourceful.”
At some time or another, every working
artist must confront the question of how to
price his or her work. Demand can drive up
prices, but where to start?
“You have to look at how much time
you put into the work, the complexity of
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 13
feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
the piece, and the emotional attachment,”
Huynh said. “Also, is the rent due, how
hungry am I, how much gas do I have in
my car…”
Galleries often garner a hefty commission
(around 50 percent), but they also provide
great exposure and guidance to artists who
might not be business savvy.
or this stage in my career – of course, Sandy
had a lot to do with it,” Huynh said. “We
were already organizing festivals and outdoor
shows with other artists and there was a certain
amount of interest and demand for my work. It
just felt right.”
Works by more than 40 different artists in
mediums varying from painting to jewelry to
pottery are on display at Lark and Key at any
given time.
Despite its rapid metamorphosis from
mill town to metropolis, Charlotte remains
traditional in its tastes, according to Snead.
More galleries that feature “everyday working
artists,” as well as increased public support for
their work, would advance Charlotte’s arts
scene, Snead said.
Huynh does not like to
speculate on Charlotte’s
art scene – where it is,
where it’s going, etc. He’s
far more interested in
telling stories.
“That’s what sparked my
interest in making pictures —
to be able to create characters
and put them in different
settings that make the viewer
curious about what’s going
on or draws their attention,”
Huynh said. “I use a lot of
symbolism – some are universal
symbols different cultures can
see and create their own stories
with and some symbols are
more personal, and you put these
symbols together and they create
their own language or story line.”
Huynh has achieved a measure of success
few working artists his age enjoy. He knows
this, and won’t be taking his autonomy
for granted.
“Years ago all I really wanted to do was have
the space and time to make my work, and the
forum to showcase it. I feel like I have all of
those to an extent,” he said. “But I still have the
drive and hunger to improve, and to continue
to explore.”
For more information about Huynh,
visit www.duyhuynh.com; go to
www.larkandkey.com for Lark and
Key gallery.
Lisa A. Patterson is senior writer
in the Office of Public Relations.
“All I really
wanted to do
was have the
space and time
to make my
work, and the
forum to
showcase it.”
Huynh talks briefly with his partner,
Sandy Snead, about a painting that is
leaning up against the wall. It is a new
work, featuring a woman suspended in air,
wearing a dress that appears to be made
of butterflies. She hovers gracefully above
a winding road and it’s impossible to tell
whether she will decide to touch down or
continue her ascent. Huynh has decided to
price the untitled painting at $6,000.
Now Huynh and Snead are in the
position to offer exposure to fellow artists
at their galleries, located in NoDa and
South End. The NoDa location of Lark and
Key gallery opened in 2008 and was the
realization of Huynh’s longtime dream.
“I felt it would be really nice to have my own
place one day, but it was a very farfetched thing.
I didn’t think I’d have my own place at this age
14 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | stake your claim prof i le
That Feeling You Shannon McCallum’s transition to
women’s college basketball wasn’t smooth.
Where the senior guard from Whiteville,
N.C., is now, compared to a few years ago,
is improbable and inspiring.
McCallum, Charlotte’s leading scorer
last season, originally committed to
South Carolina after a standout career at
Whiteville High. But her SAT test scores
and grade point average weren’t good
enough to qualify for college.
“It was hard coming out of high school,”
McCallum said. “I had a learning disability
(due to hearing deficiencies) since about
fifth or sixth grade.”
She landed in special classes, but said her
father realized that in order to reach college,
she’d need to return to the mainstream
school population. That’s where the
academic struggles ensued.
McCallum spent a year at Patterson
School, a college prep school in Caldwell
County, about 60 miles northwest of
Charlotte, before coming to UNC
Charlotte. She arrived in 2007, the same
season as head coach Karen Aston.
Star player becomes
leader, strives for diploma
By Cliff Mehrtens
Basketball is
what sparked
McCallum to
improve in
the classroom.
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 15
stake your claim prof i le | UNC CHARLOTTE
Can’t Coach
Adjusting to the rigors of college
academics took some adjustment, but
basketball is what sparked McCallum to
improve in the classroom.
Her grade point average is now close to a
3.0, and Aston said McCallum “now takes
pride in what she does academically.”
On the court, McCallum’s transition was
more dramatic.
Last season, she led the 49ers in scoring
(14.2 average), rebounding (7.3 per game),
assists (87), steals (80) and blocked shots (30).
McCallum will be a key component
on a team that was 18-14 last season,
but missed the NCAA Tournament.
The 49ers advanced to the second round
of the Women’s National Invitational
Tournament.
As a sophomore, McCallum was
dynamic as Aston’s first substitute off the
bench. She started only four of 31 games,
but averaged 12.2 points. McCallum
averaged more than 25 minutes per game,
as much as most of the starters. She helped
the 49ers win 23 games, and the Atlantic
10 Conference tournament championship,
the first in school history.
McCallum won the conference’s Sixth
Player of the Year award, and was named
to the all-conference tournament team.
“My goal is to try to win another
championship,” McCallum said. “Also,
personally my goal is to be a better person
as a teammate. I want to become a leader
on the team, but it’s hard. I’m trying to do
more talking, and saying positive things to
my teammates.”
Aston said she “puts a lot of weight
on my seniors,” a challenge McCallum is
eager to accept.
“The good part is Shannon’s been
through the wars of the A-10, and
understands the grind of the season. She’s
been part of a championship team, and
has that feeling you can’t coach. She wants
to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
Ultimately, Shannon wants to win.”
Aston said that during McCallum’s
freshman and sophomore seasons, she
couldn’t recall walking past the practice
gym without seeing McCallum hard
at work.
“She is a gym rat,” Aston said, laughing.
“She’s an atypical player who enjoys
practice, even though that grind is hard on
the body. It’s an outlet for her.”
McCallum’s dedication also spilled into
her class work, where she’s closing in on a
degree in Africana studies.
“I do take pride in my work,” she said. “I
need to get that diploma. I didn’t want to
come to school for nothing.”
This season also will be special as
McCallum’s sister Paige – a 5-foot-11 guard
– joins the 49ers. The sisters played together
two years in high school, and against each
other countless times.
Shannon McCallum will add big-sister
duties to her fledgling role of team leader.
“I’ve already told (Paige) that when we’re
on the court, she can’t get the ball all the
time. But, she’s already a good leader.”
Cliff Mehrtens is a Charlotte-based writer
with a background covering sports.
16 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | 49ers notebook
49er Athletes
Continue Tradition
of Academic Success
UNC Charlotte senior Corey Nagy, of men’s
golf, and Hailey Beam, of women’s soccer, were
named the Atlantic 10 (A-10) 2010 Male and
Female Scholar-Athletes of the Year in a vote by
the league’s athletics directors. This marks just the
fourth time in league history, and the first since
2001-02, that students from the same institution
have won both of the A-10 Scholar-Athlete of the
Year Awards. The two honors give Charlotte five
award winners in just five years of participation
in the league.
“I have been so proud of the accomplishments
of our student athletes both in the classroom
and on the courts and fields,” said Director of
Athletics Judy Rose. “The fact that Charlotte
student athletes have received the A-10 Scholar-
Athlete Award five times is incredible. It is even
more exciting to garner the award for both the
male and female student athletes in the same
year. It speaks volumes for the emphasis that we
place on both academics and athletics.”
Nagy and Beam are part of a long tradition of
academically successful 49er athletes.
In fact, UNC Charlotte student athletes
have received half of the A-10 athlete of the year
awards in the past five years. Only Saint Louis
comes close, with two awards.
In those same five years the 49ers have won
25 individual sport Student-Athlete of the Year
awards, including five this year; nearly double the
amount of the next closest institution.
This year, both Nagy and Beam won for
their respective sports, while Darius Law
won the Men’s Indoor and Men’s Outdoor
Track and Field awards and Adam Gross won
the Men’s Soccer Award. The 49ers have won
the A-10 Golf Student-Athlete of the Year
Award in all five seasons in the league.
In addition, Law became the second
49er in six years to win the Arthur Ashe
National Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Award. Track star Sharonda Johnson won
the same award in 2005. Gross, meanwhile
received an A-10 Post-Graduate Scholarship.
Gross, Law, Beam and Nagy were all named
ESPN The Magazine Academic all-Americans
this past season.
Al-Time A-10 Scholar-Athlete
of the Year Awards
• 2010: Corey Nagy, male (golf ); Hailey
Beam, female (soccer)
• 2008: Lindsey Ozimek, female (soccer)
• 2007: Jane Daniels, female (cross country;
track and field)
• 2006: Mike Ambrose, male (baseball)
2009-10 A-10 Sport
Student-Athlete of
the Year Awards
• Men’s Soccer: Adam Gross
• Women’s Soccer: Hailey Beam
• Men’s Indoor Track
and Field: Darius Law
• Men’s Golf: Corey Nagy
• Men’s Outdoor Track
and Field: Darius Law
Soccer, Volleyball, Cross
country headline fall sports
The 49ers men’s and women’s soccer teams,
who were both nationally-ranked in 2009,
headline the 49ers fall sports programming.
The men’s soccer team earned the program’s first
NCAA Tournament berth since 1997 while the
women were A-10 runners-up with an unbeaten
9-0-2 record in league play. Charlotte will host
the 2010 A-10 Men’s Soccer Championship on
campus at Transamerica Field.
The men are led by a pair of gifted strikers,
Evan James and Andres Cuero. James was
second on the team with seven goals while
Cuero topped the team with seven assists.
Head coach Jeremy Gunn also has a strong
defense that includes key returnees Isaac
Cowles and Charles Rodriguez. The 49ers
toppled third-ranked Wake Forest last season
and went 11-3-6 overall and 5-2-2 in A-10
play to return to the NCAA Tournament for
the first time in over a decade.
The women return two-time A-10
Offensive Player of the Year Whitney
Weinraub. Weinraub led the Atlantic 10 in
goals (13), points (32) and game-winning
tallies (6) for a high-powered 49ers team that
was among the nation’s leader in scoring. In
three years, Weinraub has scored 31 goals and
is just five shy of the 49ers all-time record of
36. Weinraub will be joined by the likes of
preseason all-conference choices Oni Bernard,
Sam Huecker and Megan Minnix. Former
Corey Nagy Andres Cuero returns for the
49ers men’s soccer team.
Hailey Beam
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 17
49ers men’s player John Cullen will guide the
team after posting an impressive 16-3-2 mark
in 2009.
The 49ers volleyball team, under head
coach Chris Redding, is picked to finish
sixth in the Atlantic 10. The 49ers return a
powerful attack led by the return of its top
three attackers. Sophomores Bianca Rouse
and Jenna Litoborski were 1-2 in total kills
for the 49ers as freshmen while senior Kat
Hicks joined them with over 200 kills, as
well. That trio, along with returning setter
Sheri Davis, look to spark a 49ers team that
attracted over 600 fans for each of its home
contests on its way to an average of over 900
per match.
In cross country, senior all-America
distance runner Amanda Goetschius leads
the 49ers women as they race for the A-10
title. Charlotte was the A-10 runner-up
last year, and top runners Goetschius, who
was the A-10 individual runner-up, Keara
Thomas, Laura McCary, Kristin Mitchell
and Sarah Willingham all return. The men’s
side, which loses top guns Adu Dentamo and
Chase Eckard, looks to pair the experience of
seniors like Aaron Kauffman, Dakota Lowery
and Javan Lapp with the youth of impressive
sophomores like Ross Roberson, Will Taylor,
Daniel Stiefvater and Daweet Dagnachew.
Soccer home games will be played at
Transamerica Field; volleyball home matches
are at Halton Arena. For complete schedule
information go to www.charlotte49ers.com.
| UNC CHARLOTTE
of Trustees approved the recommendation
without opposition. Dec. 11, 2009, the
Board unanimously approved the funding
plan. Feb. 12, 2010, the University of North
Carolina Board of Governors unanimously
approved the funding plan. During the
2010 summer legislative session, the Senate
Finance Committee offered its unanimous
vote (June 9) as did the Senate floor (June
10). The House Finance Committee added
its approval (June 24) and the House voiced
its approval, July 7. Gov. Bev Purdue signed
the bill in early August.
“We have many people to thank,” Dubois
added, “including Mac Everett and the
members of the public advisory committee
which supported football at Charlotte,
to the members of the Board of Trustees,
Board of Governors, and General Assembly
who gave it their careful consideration
and ultimate approval. Most of all, we
acknowledge our hard-working staff and
our loyal students who have agreed to carry
the financial burden. This is a great time
to be a Niner. We hope that the entire
community will make us their ‘home team’
on Saturdays.”
The 49ers raised over $5.8 million with
the sale of 49ers Seat Licenses (FSLs) and
capital gifts over the next year, setting
the table for a funding plan that has now
received approval from the University Board
of Trustees, the university system Board of
Governors and the state legislature.
“We have said all along that this is not
just about the 49ers athletic department,”
noted Rose. “It’s about the University, the
city and the region. So many people have
recognized the potential and possibilities
and stepped forward in support. This is
their success.”
The 49ers continue to sell FSL’s, which
are required to guarantee a seat to 49ers
football games.
“We sold over 3,200 FSL’s during a
time when folks still weren’t sure we were
going to field a team,” Rose said. “We
hadn’t received all the necessary approvals.
Now, fans can purchase those FSLs with
the knowledge that yes, the 49ers will play
football in 2013.”
Continued from p. 3
WHAT’S TO COME
n Spring 2011: Hiring of Head Coach/Coaching Staff
n May 2011: Breaking Ground on Charlotte 49ers Football Facility,
including football field house and 15,000 seat football stadium.
n February 2012: 2012-13 Recruiting Class Signing
n Summer 2012: Charlotte 49ers Football Field House Opens
n Fall 2012: First Football Class Enrolls
n Fall 2012: Announce 2013 Football Schedule
n December 2012: 2013-14 Mid-Year Junior College
Transfer Signing
n February 2013: 2013-14 Recruiting Class Signing
n Spring 2013: Spring Football for the 49ers
n FIRST GAME: Aug. 31, 2013
The volleyball team returns a powerful lineup
led by the return of its top three attackers.
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
“Archeology
bears witness to
the past: That
once upon a time,
children roamed
these overgrown
alleys, and that
there were shouts
of joy and sorrow
in the everyday
cycle of life.”
— Akinwumi Ogundiran
Unearthing
Empire By Lisa A. Patterson
an
18 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 19
feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
UNC Charlotte Chair and Professor
of Africana Studies Akinwumi Ogundiran
is digging deeper into an important part
of Africa’s past to unearth the origins of
an empire whose influence can be felt
today in the language and cultural
practices of people from Brazil, to
Nigeria to South Carolina.
According to Ogundiran, empire means
political control exercised by one organized
political unit over another unit separate
from and alien to it. Many factors enter
into empire, but the essential core is
political: The possession of final authority
by one entity over the vital political
decisions of another.
The Egyptian Empire is among the most
well-known African empires, but it was
the Oyo Empire, founded by the Yoruba
people in the 15th Century, that captured
Ogundiran’s imagination.
“What is fascinating is growing up in
Nigeria I read about the Oyo Empire, but
years later I realized that there’s a big gap
in the empire’s historiography,” Ogundiran
said. “We don’t know how the empire
began. Historians have focused on the
period when it was richest.”
Historians contend that warriors were
the founders of the empire, but according
to Ogundiran, warriors don’t build empires.
This assertion led Ogundiran to ask why
and how the empire spread from a small
city state and into one of the largest political
units in West Africa, south of the Sahara.
Ogundiran’s question morphed into
a multi-year, ongoing investigation of
various facets of Oyo life. Drawing
from anthropology, archeology and
“When we study empires we tend
to study the metropolises. To
understand how an empire developed,
you have to go to the peripheries.”
Professor Akinwumi Ogundiran is studying
how the Oyo Empire developed as the
largest political entity in Atlantic Africa,
south of the Niger River. Here he holds an
ivory hair comb, one of the many crafts
produced by the Empire’s inhabitants.
20 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
historiography, Ogundiran has peeled back
layers of misconception about the empire
and its origins, revealing a complex polity
with fully developed and firmly entrenched
civic, cultural and economic structures.
From 2002 to 2007, Ogundiran’s research
focused on the role of military men in
imperial expansion.
“By mapping the direction of the
expansion between 1580 and the 1830s,
I realized that the reason military actions
were continued was to control trade routes.
When the Europeans arrived on the coast of
West Africa they wanted to trade, and the
purpose of the empire’s expansion was to
secure trading routes that led to the coast,”
Ogundiran said.
The Oyo were 200 miles inland and began to
expand outward in order to protect traders from
attack. A majority of the traders were women.
“Women were engaging in all kinds of
crafts, including cloth weaving and jewelry
making, so I began to look at the domestic
level of production in this pre-industrial
society,” Ogundiran said. “Women were
traveling 50-plus miles to trade – they
contributed a great deal to the economy.”
Ogundiran’s current study focuses
on one strategy of empire formation –
colonization. He believes that provinces
or frontiers of empires, rather than
imperial capitals, hold the key to
understanding the dynamics of
empire formation.
“Women were traveling 50-plus
miles to trade ­—
they contributed
a great deal to the economy.”
“When we study empires we tend
to study the capitals (metropolises). To
understand how an empire developed,
you have to go to the peripheries,”
Ogundiran explained. “The answers lie
in the peripheries.”
Historical sources, consisting of oral
interviews and published/unpublished local
accounts, led Ogundiran to focus on the
Upper Osun area of central Yorubaland.
Ogundiran began an excavation of
Ede-Ile, likely the first successful colony
established by the Oyo to advance their
imperial ambitions.
His team is currently working to
determine the nature of the Oyo’s intrusion
into central Yorubaland and how the Oyo
metropolis maintained its presence in a
foreign (and presumably hostile) territory.
“Much recent scholarship has focused
on colonial encounters between the
colonizers and the local populace. My
study emphasizes the cultural and political
relationship between colonists and the
metropolis/homeland,” Ogundiran said.
Now a landscape overtaken by secondary
forest and wild animals, Ede-Ile was once
a prosperous town ringed by Baobab trees
and bustling with commerce.
Ogundiran holds an ivory hair pin dating to the 16th Century. The pin was among an
assortment of craft objects unearthed during an archeological dig in modern Nigeria.
Ogundiran uses leading-edge technology in his
laboratory to determine the age of this ivory
hair pin, a relic of the Oyo Empire.
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feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
Though the Oyo Empire protected its
citizens from enslavement, it did not spare
those outside of the empire. Conquered
peoples were made to supply a proscribed
number of slaves to be sold on the coast
every year.
When Britain outlawed the slave trade
in the 1820s, the decision touched off an
economic crisis in the empire. At the same
time, political unrest in the metropolis and
an Islamic uprising in the north contributed
to the eventual collapse of the empire.
“Over a period of 300 years, 500,000
Yoruba people were enslaved. As soon as the
empire collapsed the protections the citizens
enjoyed were no longer available; in just a
50-year period, from 1800 to 1850, half a
million Yoruba people were enslaved and
brought to the United States, Brazil and
Cuba,” Ogundiran said.
These late arrivals brought their rich
heritage and traditions to the Americas.
Many of which are still alive today in the
lyrics of Brazilian pop music, in the practice
of Santeria and even in the governance of
Oyotunji (“Oyo Rises Again”), a village
located in South Carolina. The Oyo Empire
collapsed, but its culture was transplanted to
the New World.
With funding from the National
Science Foundation-Missouri Research
Reactor Center, National Endowment for the
Humanities, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation
for Anthropological Research, Ogundiran
traveled to Africa this summer to conduct the
next phase in his research.
Ogundiran and his team currently
are studying the impact of Oyo imperial
expansion on the environment, focusing on
how activities such as hunting and fishing
affected the ecosystem. They also will
extend their examination of crafts work and
specialization of production.
The results of Ogundiran’s investigations
not only enrich understanding of the
formation of an African Empire during the
Early Modern period, but also reveal the
cultural background of the African Diaspora
peoples in the Americas — from Cuba to
Brazil to Trinidad to Miami to Charlotte.
Ogundiran collaborates with students and
institutions in Nigeria, including the National
Commission for Museums and Monuments,
but hopes to extend the opportunity to
participate in fieldwork in Africa and laboratory
analysis on campus to UNC Charlotte students.
However, he warns, you can’t be afraid of snakes,
or very big bugs, if you’re going to dig deep into
the lives of traders, kings and cavalry men.
Lisa A. Patterson is senior writer
in the Office of Public Relations.
The first excavations at Ede-Ile were carried
out in four locations. All the excavated units
show that there was no prior settlement or
occupation before the Oyo colonists settled on
the site that later became Ede-Ile.
While evidence of widely varied forms of
commerce are visible at Ede-Ile, the colony
might have served another distinct purpose –
to protect Oyo citizens from the slave trade.
“Either you joined the slave trade or
you were destroyed by it,” Ogundiran said.
“As soon as it was established it was almost
impossible for African nations to get out of it.
The dilemma became what to do with it.”
The empire’s expansion proved to be a
double-edged sword. By expanding to the
coast the empire was better able to protect
the vast majority of its citizens. Conversely,
profits from trade, including the slave trade,
were necessary to purchase horses for the Oyo
cavalry, which was crucial to the empire’s
imperial ambitions.
“The European empires grew out of feudal
systems. The Oyo Empire wasn’t feudal —
every child born in the empire had the right to
own and farm land, so the state was financed
through commerce,” Ogundiran said. “This
structure made it necessary to engage in more
and more trade. Financing for the military and
a whole retinue of government functions came
from the slave trade.”
Domestic production was essential to economic success for pre-industrial societies. Women drove much of this production and actively participated in
trade. Pictured here are craft objects including a brass bangle, ivory jewelries, beads and spindle whorls.
22 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | center stage
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 23
Raise the
Green Flag
On Sept. 18, 2008, Chancellor Philip L.
Dubois recommended to the Board
of Trustees that UNC Charlotte
start an NCAA football program.
That recommendation came after a
21-month study by a football feasibility
committee led by local leaders. That
decision gave rise to spontaneous
celebrations and rallies like the one
pictured here at the Belk Tower. In
November of 2008, the trustees voted
to accept that recommendation. But
the quest for 49er football was far from
complete. The Athletics department
developed and launched a fundraising
and seat license marketing plan In
January 2009; a fundraising capital
campaign commenced in February
2009 amidst a devastating national,
state and local recession. In December
2009 the trustees approved a final
financing plan to establish the football
program and in February of this year
the University of North Carolina Board
of Governors approved that plan.
Because the plan included issuing debt,
it had to be approved by the General
Assembly, and the bill of which it was
part needed to be signed by Gov. Bev
Perdue. The debt was approved in
July, and in early August, with the
governor’s signature, 49er football was
finally approved. The team will take the
field in 2013. Go ‘Niners!
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
By Lisa A. Patterson
Tell It Like It Was
Students, stories and a small South Carolina town
University Honors Program students greet Miss
Eugenia Deas as she joins them for dinner and
the official launch of the oral history project.
of the town, and to fulfill a community
service requirement mandated by the UNC
Charlotte University Honors Program.
With funding from private donations,
the students were transported to
McClellanville, housed and fed for the
weekend. Upon arrival, the students toured
town and enjoyed dinner with the residents.
Arnold said the dinner served to move
many of the students from reticence about
the project to excitement.
The next day, the students paired off in
teams of two and conducted the interviews.
After collecting the material the students
returned to campus where they transcribed
the interviews and are compiling them as a
collection to be sent to The Village Museum
at McClellanville.
Though the students received
interviewing and equipment training from
“This big book is the autobiography
of an illiterate man.” So begins All God’s
Dangers, the award-winning autobiography
by Theodore Rosengarten, a MacArthur
Genius Grant recipient and long-time
resident of McClellanville, South Carolina.
Rosengarten is among an eclectic mix
of artisans, laborers, writers and retirees
who call the town of McClellanville home.
Rosengarten and 14 of his neighbors added
“interviewee” to their resumes, as they
relayed stories about their lives, and the
history of their town, to a group of UNC
Charlotte honors students.
The 14 students, their instructor,
Robert Arnold, and University Honors
Program (UHP) Director Connie Rothwell,
descended on the tiny fishing village
(population 400) as part of a project
designed to capture the rich oral history
24 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 25
feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
Assistant University Librarian for Special
Collections Katie McCormick, some
harbored fears of being met with silence
by the interviewees. It turns out their fears
were unfounded.
“The problem we had was getting people
to stop talking so the students could get to
the next interview,” Arnold said.
Sam Watson, UNC Charlotte professor
emeritus of English, helped coordinate
the project. A resident of McClellanville,
Watson said, “Here, once people get
cranked up they don’t want to shut up.”
In Their Own Words
“We often assume that what is of educational importance is
either in books or somewhere other than where we are,” said
Professor Emeritus Sam Watson, who played an integral role
in coordinating the McClellanville oral history project for UNC
Charlotte honors students. He believes the project encouraged
students to view their own lives and experiences as valuable
and instructive.
After collecting oral histories from 15 individuals, the students
transcribed the interviews, created audio CDs and multi-media
DVDs, and wrote reflective essays about their experiences. Below
are excerpts from the student essays.
Student: Hugh Quach
Interviewee: Dr. Bonner
After my experience at McClellanville, I understood why I had to be present for
this project to work. I was simply there to listen to these people talk…I assumed
the role of guide for them and a comfort.
History tends to repeat itself, so the role of those who have shared their
stories with me is to attempt to pass on messages about successes and failures
they may have experienced to the future citizens of McClellanville.
Student: Chelsea Kuyath
Interviewee: Mrs. Lloyd McClellan
Mrs. McClellan was born in McClellanville and has lived there almost ever
since. Her colorful stories told of an adventurous youth during WWII and a lively
adulthood in a changing society. She shared tales such as the time she went
out the second story window to paint her house and ended up dangling by her
security rope screaming for help, or when she spent her embalming money on
Bojangles’ biscuits and antiques on a road trip up to Charlotte.
From the memories Mrs. McClellan shared with us, an image of McClellanville
began to form. The Village had been as pretty as a postcard before, but through
Mrs. McClellan’s eyes, it became a vibrant, dynamic place full of character
and history.
Student: Conor Dugan
Interviewee: Bud Hill
The first thing I noticed about the people of McClellanville
is that every one of them is an excellent story teller.
Oral history is McClellanville’s backbone, its
legacy being kept alive by citizens spending
time together and sharing memories, which
seems to be what makes the place so unique.
These people put great importance on
spending time with others, getting to know
them, talking to them and becoming close.
For more information about the UNC
Charlotte University Honors Program,
please visit www.uhonors.uncc.edu
Continued on p. 36
Mrs. Lloyd McClellan, pictured here, regaled
student Chelsea Kuyath with tales of her
adventurous youth in McClellanville, a tiny
fishing village on the South Carolina coast.
Students from the UNC Charlotte University
Honors Program gathered with McClellanville
residents to learn more about the village as
part of a project to collect oral histories.
26 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | stake your claim prof i le
Bringing
History to Life
Latta Plantation a perfect fit for Nicole Glinski Cheslak
By Rhiannon Bowman
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 27
stake your claim prof i le | UNC CHARLOTTE
In February of this year, UNC Charlotte
alumna, Nicole Glinski Cheslak (’06)
landed her dream job: Executive Director
for Latta Plantation in Huntersville. But she
hasn’t left her alma mater behind — she still
checks in with her favorite history teacher
from time to time with questions about
Charlotte’s pre-Civil War history.
Since childhood, Cheslak has had a
passion for history. Her parents encouraged
her through trips to historical sites across
the United States. It wasn’t until she was
well into her academic career, however, that
she accepted history as her major.
A native of Ohio, she first visited
Charlotte when she was eight years old. She
says she remembers thinking, “I’m going
to live here one day.” When the time came
to choose a college,
UNC Charlotte was
on top of her list.
“It’s a big school,”
she said, “but it has a
small feel.”
Assistant Professor
Dan DuPre helped
crystallize that
emotion. While
Cheslak tried out
several other majors, she says she kept
coming back to his history classes, most
of which concentrate on the timeframe
between colonization and the Civil War.
Finally, she gave in and became a history
major. “You can’t fight your love,” she said.
Recalling her time as a student, she said
she loved how DuPre allows his classes to
sit in a circle and, instead of giving lectures
every class, he encourages his students to
discuss their assignments. “You had to be
prepared,” Cheslak said of his classes.
“She stood out,” DuPre said, adding
that he remembers how Cheslak especially
enjoyed biographical approaches to
history. “I’m pleased that she’s using what
she’s learned at UNC Charlotte in her
professional life,” he said, adding that Latta
Plantation is a “perfect fit” for her.
Cheslak couldn’t agree more. Shortly
after graduation, she began looking around
for work. The first stop on her job hunt
was Latta Plantation’s Web site (www.
lattaplantation.org). Within 30 minutes
of submitting her resume she landed an
interview. By March 2007, she began
working part-time. By August of the
same year, she was the manager of Visitor
Services. On Feb. 10, 2010, she became the
Executive Director.
The job includes several perks, according
to Cheslak. She says Latta’s “amazing
volunteers” make her job easy. So do her co-workers.
“We’ve all been here long enough,
and love the site so much, that we all do our
part,” she said. One perk recent visitors may
have noticed involves one of her five pets.
Cleopatra Latta, a Chihuahua puppy, has
become the plantation’s official greeter.
Unfortunately, the job also has its trials
and tribulations. The plantation is a non-profit
organization located within a county
park. Like so many other county amenities,
the organization has faced severe – nearly 50
percent – budget cuts
in recent months.
Fortunately, Cheslak
said, people continue
to attend the site’s
events. “That’s what
keeps us going,”
she said. “We’re
operating at the bare
minimum.”
During her short
tenure, she’s already had to cut expenses
and events and the site has had to cut its
hours. Once open seven days a week, it now
closes on Mondays. While Cheslak fears
layoffs may be around the corner, she is not
willing to sit around and wait for the sky to
fall. Instead, she’s thinking of creative new
fundraising ideas and seeking additional
grant opportunities. She also relies heavily
on volunteers.
For her, it’s important to avoid getting
snagged by the budget crisis so she can stay
focused on the organization’s goal to bring
history to life. “When you come out here,”
she said, “you experience history. It’s so
nice for the kids – they can’t learn it all
in school.”
Today, she and her husband still live
near campus where he is a mechanical
engineering student. She plans to return to
UNC Charlotte for graduate school after he
graduates with his bachelor’s degree.
Rhiannon Bowman (’08) is a freelance
writer based in Charlotte and a frequent
contributor to UNC Charlotte.
Cheslak is
seeking new
fundraising
ideas and grant
opportunities.
28 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
By Phillip Brown
UNC Charlotte Model United Nations
(U.N.), celebrating its 30th year on campus,
excels in helping undergraduates to better
understand the interconnectedness of the
world’s many regions and cultures. This
year’s efforts to search for solutions to global
problems resulted in a record 41 awards
at regional, national and international
competitions.
“We come together to discuss ideas
centered on international cooperation,
global development and issues impacting
the advancement of a global society,”
said Matt Smither, 2009-10 Model U.N.
president. “But beyond talking about the
issues, we want to talk about solutions –
how do we provide clean water and stop the
spread of HIV/AIDS globally?”
Model United Nations combines the
principles of the U.N. – collaboration,
compromise, diplomacy and justice
The Big Picture
Model U.N. explores issues beyond our borders
The 30 members of UNC Charlotte’s award-winning
Model United Nations (U.N.) club have
spent countless hours working together to
solve practical and theoretical global problems.
The club has helped launch and sustain Model
U.N. programs at other universities and high
schools in the region.
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 29
feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
– with the acquisition of important
skills for virtually any career – public
speaking, writing, intensive research, time
management and the ability to work with
others from diverse backgrounds. Students
attend conferences as delegates representing
a particular nation, its policies, programs
and government.
Beyond the skills that students learn,
they become aware of the world beyond
our borders, stated Cindy Combs, UNC
Charlotte professor of political science and
Model U.N. faculty advisor. “As global
citizens, they discover the reasons why the
world matters to us here. They generate an
interest in the world and the desire to travel
and make a difference.”
While conferences are the main focus
of the Model U.N. program, the bulk of
the preparation occurs before students
attend an event. Model U.N. relies upon its
members to be ready for conferences. The
work begins at the start of the fall semester
as the club determines which countries it
will represent in the Southern Regional
Model United Nations conference, held in
November. During the spring, Model U.N.
members can enroll in a three-hour senior
seminar for academic credit and continue
preparations for national conferences and
the international Harvard World Model
United Nations – considered the Olympics
of Model U.N. competitions.
According to Combs, this year’s success
can be attributed to the dedication of its
30 members and the leadership team of
Smither and club vice president Jay Patel.
“The members met twice a week, but
Matt and Jay got together several times
each week to plan,” Combs said. “They
invested a great deal of time with students
individually. They encouraged, mentored
and empowered members to feel like they
could manage the tasks. Students felt they
could handle the workload and knew their
peers had confidence in their ability to
complete their projects. In my 21 years of
involvement with Model U.N., I’ve never
seen leadership like this.”
Everything Model U.N. does is through
the students; we train each other, Smither
noted, adding Model U.N. is student-led,
student-organized and student-funded.
Besides various fund-raising events, the
club receives support through corporate
donations and area international groups.
In addition to attending four conferences
this past academic year, UNC Charlotte
Model United Nations hosted its 21st
annual College Carolina’s Conference
to teach delegate skills to participating
university students from across the country.
Throughout its inception, the club has
helped launch and sustain Model U.N.
programs at other state universities and
high schools in the greater Charlotte
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
metropolitan region; this year, two high
schools (one in Hickory, the other,
Charlotte) joined a growing roster of
programs supported by UNC Charlotte
Model U.N..
For the first time, the group is moving
beyond the theoretical to gain first-hand
experience in being part of the global
community. In July, members traveled
to Haiti, a nation still recovering from a
devastating earthquake.
“We had great success in recognition at
conferences, traveled to exciting locations
and served as ambassadors for UNC
Charlotte and the Charlotte community,
but we had not affected change in our
global community,” said Smither. Working
with Mercy League International, the club
completed an educational and construction
project in July.
Model U.N. members come from diverse
cultural backgrounds. Because of the many
hours they spend together in preparation,
members become as close as a family, which
has resulted in a strong alumni base for
networking and support.
Moving forward, the concern for the
organization, like any club, is how to
sustain and build upon the tradition of
excellence for which UNC Charlotte Model
U.N. has become synonymous.
“Model U.N. is hunger; it only exists for
the will to want more. Entering the year,
we looked at our record, and said, ‘We’ve
got the best award record of any club at this
school, is that enough?” Smither remarked.
“We’re not satisfied by the status quo. We’re
looking for new universities to sponsor
and new high schools to bring in. We want
to continue to improve the conferences
that we host. The addition of the social
venture program (trip to Haiti) gives us
new direction. We don’t want to just speak
and write about issues and solutions in
conference; we want to be the people on
the ground, making those changes and
achieving tangible results.”
In the quest to create citizens of the
world, Model U.N. is delivering. Of the
eight Model U.N. seniors who graduated,
five are pursing international opportunities.
Smither, a Mount Pleasant native and
recent graduate with a bachelor’s degree
in history and political science, intends
to spend the next year working abroad
teaching English, either in Korea or China,
before returning to pursue a master’s degree
in diplomacy and peace studies.
“After being involved with Model U.N.
and traveling to conferences nationally and
internationally, it is exciting to see these
students want to get a better feel for culture
and language studies,” said Combs. “As the
Model U.N. academic advisor, that’s what
you’re hoping for.”
Phillip Brown is internal communications
manager in the Office of Public Relations.
In the quest to create citizens of
the world, the Model U.N. is delivering.
Of the eight Model U.N. seniors
who graduated, five are pursuing
international opportunities.
30 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 31
stake your claim prof i le | UNC CHARLOTTE
“Working at the YMCA opened my eyes
to many poverty situations. I’ve also worked
with Charlotte Rescue Mission, Habitat for
Humanity, and the local food bank. And I have
a lot of friends who are freegans,” she said. “I set
up this project to raise poverty awareness in a
way not a lot of people do.”
She elected to dumpster dive for
a month at minimum and has been
chronicling the experience at
www.thefrugaldumsterdiver.wordpress.com
Because of the economic recession,
non-profit organizations that deliver essential
services to Charlotte’s more than 5,000
homeless, 3,000 of whom are children, and
scores more people who comprise the region’s
working poor, have suffered. Donations to
local food pantries are flagging.
“Most people don’t like to think about
trash, and specifically, discarded food,” Tokay
said. “On average, Americans throw away
200,000 tons of edible food daily. This means
that while people around the world struggle
with daily hunger, we are throwing out
perfectly good food.”
Tokay wanted to see just how much food is
discarded by grocery stores alone in the hope of
ultimately changing the situation. It didn’t take
long for her to conclude that far too many of
the items thrown away could instead be utilized
by food pantries and other organizations
committed to eliminating hunger and poverty.
“Stores throw away loaves of bread on its
expiration date,” she said. “One day I counted
27 loaves of bread in the dumpster.”
She explained that liability issues often get
in the way of food going from the store to the
food pantry and admitted that this might be
the biggest hurdle to implementing programs
that could help cut down on waste and feed
people in need.
“I’ve done some research on expiration dates
and have found that ‘used by, sell by and best
before’ are just unregulated dates that grocery
stores put on food as guidelines for perishable
items,” Tokay noted. “In my recent food
discoveries I have found that a lot of items are
thrown out the day they expire, or in fact several
days before the stamped package date.”
Tokay plans to go back to her “normal”
life after the experiment but said she will
supplement her grocery shopping with
dumpster diving.
However for some, dumpster diving is
among the best of very few options. Tokay
heard a first-hand account of life on the street
when she encountered a man in his late 20s,
wearing a dress shirt and khaki pants, digging
through “her” dumpster. She struck up a
conversation with him and learned that his
name was Mike and he had been homeless for
eight years. He offered to share his best finds
with Tokay, discussed the judgments people
make about his lifestyle, and told her about
the spots he frequents. He gets everything he
needs to live from dumpsters — food and
even electronic devices. He was hoping that
the nearby sporting goods store would throw
out a tent some time, as a tent would make an
excellent shelter.
“You wouldn’t know Mike was homeless if
you encountered him on the street – his nice
clothes make him look like any other person,”
Tokay said.
The wealthiest nation in the world,
the United States houses five percent of
the world’s population and consumes 25
percent of the Earth’s resources. On the
flip side, more than 1.5 million people in
the United States live on the streets or in
shelters, according to conservative estimates.
To eradicate poverty and waste on a global
scale, Tokay believes change must come one
community, one county at a time.
“It’s so easy to give that person on the
side of the road a couple dollars and move
on with life,” Tokay said. “I grew up without
ever wondering about where my next meal
would come from, like most people I know.
But many people, even in Charlotte, don’t
have the luxury of taking food and shelter
for granted.”
Lisa A. Patterson is senior writer
in the Office of Public Relations.
UNC Charlotte honors program student Kaitlyn Tokay is raising awareness of homelessness and
hunger in a unique way – she is blogging about her experience as a “dumpster diver.”
Continued from p. 7
32 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
When Harvey Murphy visited Charlotte
College in 1965, he wasn’t impressed. At the
time, the College was vying to become part
of the UNC system. “There is no way the
state of North Carolina will grant university
status to this college,” thought Murphy.
Then he met UNC Charlotte founder Dr.
Bonnie Cone.
Cone learned about Murphy through
Jim Matthews, a biology professor at UNC
Charlotte. The College, soon to become a
University, was in need of a health and physical
education program and Cone was recruiting.
It didn’t take her very long to convince
Murphy that he needed to take on the
job (Cone remains legendary for her
persuasiveness and her attitude of not
accepting no for an answer).
“Within 20 minutes I was sharing my
ideas about how to make Charlotte College
into a first class university,” Murphy
remembers. “The opportunity to help build
a university from the beginning was just
too good to pass up and Dr. Cone — Miss
Bonnie — was a remarkable woman.”
There was only one more thing that
Cone needed: An “interim” men’s basketball
coach. So it began.
Murphy joined Charlotte College in the
fall of 1965 as the Athletic Director and
men’s basketball coach. He was charged
with developing all aspects of campus
recreational, athletic and health and physical
education efforts. Charlotte College became
The University of North Carolina at
Charlotte that year.
There were no athletic facilities or
university housing at the time. The
basketball team practiced in area elementary
schools and played games in high school
gyms. “The showers were made for little
people and the boys towered over the
lockers,” Murphy said. The players drove
themselves to practices and games. When
they couldn’t find a ride, Murphy picked
them up and drove them home, which
he did with regularity. Murphy and the
team manager had to substitute at times
and scrimmage with the team. “Those
young men gave a lot and they inspired
me.” The 49ers won the Dixie Conference
championships in 1969 and 1970.
“We also integrated the team while I
was coach. We recruited the first African
American player, T. J. Reddy, who played
for a year. I received some phone calls about
that,” said Murphy.
Murphy blazed new trails while building
the physical education department. He
decided that men and women should
participate together in the same physical
education classes. It was a very progressive
notion at the time. “It provided economical
savings as well,” he said. He is particularly
UNC CHARLOTTE | stake your claim prof i le
Visionary teacher,
researcher, coach
Endowment honors Harvey Murphy
By Buffie Stephens “The opportunity to help build a
university was just too good to pass
up and Dr. Cone – Miss Bonnie – was
a remarkable woman.”
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 33
stake your claim prof i le | UNC CHARLOTTE
proud of the fact that in 1975, he helped
hire current Athletics Director Judy Rose
as women’s basketball and tennis coach and
physical education teacher.
He also established the now robust
intramural program at UNC Charlotte.
“We began a women’s intramural football
team and played power puff football; not so
politically correct these days.”
Murphy is lauded for his vision and
approach to health and physical education.
He was a pioneer who helped establish
the fact that exercise is indeed healthy and
essential to a long life-span. During his 31
years at UNC Charlotte, the Department of
Health and Physical Education transformed
into the Department of Kinesiology in the
College of Health and Human Services.
“I was allowed freedom to run my
department and the camaraderie we had
among us was palpable. We helped faculty
get the resources they needed to do good
research,” said Murphy. “Mike Turner, Tim
Lightfoot, Mitch Cordova, and Linda Berne
have done tremendous applied research in the
area of exercise physiology, sports medicine
and health promotion. That caliber of faculty
has helped to establish UNC Charlotte as a
major research university.”
Murphy himself has made enormous
contributions to the health and well-being
of Charlotte and the region. He helped
to establish the first cardiac rehabilitation
program at what is now Carolinas Medical
Center using a grant from the Heart
Association and the state of North Carolina.
“Physicians at the time were afraid of exercise
therapy after heart attacks,” said Murphy. “We
convinced a few emergency room physicians to
monitor our exercise sessions and they became
more comfortable with the concept.” Murphy
also helped the Charlotte Fire Department
establish a fitness program.
According to Kinesiology Department
Chair Mitch Cordova, “Dr. Murphy was
a true visionary in understanding the
importance of exercise and preventing chronic
diseases such as cardio vascular disease, obesity,
and diabetes, the importance of exercise in
rehabilitating people with these conditions.
He was a leader in organizing some of the
early conferences and workshops within the
profession at the time.”
While at UNC Charlotte, he served on the
YMCA Board of Directors of the Southeast
Region and helped develop training programs
for Y staff and volunteers. He established
certification programs. Murphy visited the
Soviet Union in 1977 to observe Soviet fitness
and sports program for the YMCA.
Growing up in Enterprise, Ala., Murphy
didn’t think he had the resources to attend
college. Murphy played basketball, football
and baseball at Coffee County High School.
Buddy McCollum, the basketball coach
at Troy State Teachers College saw him
play basketball.
“McCollum — we called him Batman
— recruited me and he changed my life
forever. You never know what opportunities
will come to you. I knew I didn’t want
to be a farmer. So many people gave me
opportunities,” said Murphy.
That is the philosophy he has lived by
during his 44 years of teaching. Murphy
has presented opportunity to students
and faculty over the years and did it
intentionally, paying tribute to those who
offered him the same.
As a tribute to Harvey Murphy, the
Department of Kinesiology at UNC
Charlotte honored him this year by
endowing a scholarship in his name. The
Dr. Harvey Murphy Scholarship will benefit
students in the Department of Kinesiology.
UNC Charlotte faculty and staff — past
and present — former students and athletes,
friends and family all have contributed to
the scholarship fund.
“I’m thrilled,” said Murphy. “I must have
left the department in good shape,” he added.
Good shape, indeed.
Buffie Stephens, a UNC Charlotte
alumna, is media relations manager
in the Office of Public Relations.
To establish the Dr. Harvey Murphy
Scholarship in perpetuity, the
Department of Kinesiology continues
to accept donations. Contributions
may be mailed to: College of Health
and Human Services, attn: Heather
Shaughnessy, UNC Charlotte, 9201
University City Boulevard, Charlotte,
NC 28223. For more information,
visit www.health.uncc.edu or
contact Heather Shaughnessy at
704.687.7737 or hshaughn@uncc.edu.
34 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
By Lynn Roberson
UNC Charlotte is keenly focused on
faculty recruitment and advancement, in part
through its cornerstone initiatives supported
by a $2.15 million ADVANCE grant from
the National Science Foundation.
“The grant relates specifically to our
institutional climate for women faculty
in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics, or STEM disciplines,” says
Joan Lorden, provost and vice chancellor for
academic affairs. “However, we are leveraging
the impact throughout the university. Engaging
men and women in creating an equitable
gender climate contributes to a positive
environment for all, including students.”
UNC Charlotte is among a select group
of universities nationwide to have received an
ADVANCE grant, with one year remaining
on its five-year award. While nationwide
studies continue to show challenges in
attracting women to STEM careers in
academia and industry, UNC Charlotte has
shown progress.
Notably, the number of female STEM
faculty promoted and obtaining tenure has
grown 14 percent since the University received
the grant. The number of women in STEM
leadership roles has increased 23 percent.
During the most recent round of promotions
in the Lee College of Engineering, four of
the six faculty members achieving tenure and
promotion to associate professor were women,
in another example.
ADVANCE Influences
Institutional Change
The NSF grant has acted as a catalyst for
sustainable institutional changes at UNC
Charlotte. Collaborators include Academic
Helping Women
Faculty ADVANCE
Grant funds program to nurture STEM faculty
Affairs, Human Resources, the Council on
University Community, the Chancellor’s
Diversity Fund, the Faculty Council, various
colleges, the Center for Professional and Applied
Ethics and others. A leadership team drawn from
various colleges and chaired by Lorden guides
the efforts.
In one important example of systemic
impact, the ADVANCE Future of the
Faculty committee has advocated for policy
improvements with university-wide implications.
“ADVANCE has influenced the
broadening of pathways leading to
promotion and the expansion of rationales
for stopping the tenure clock, or the time
faculty have to achieve tenure,” Lorden
says. “ADVANCE also championed the
need for a faculty ombudsperson, a position
endorsed by the Faculty Council.”
ADVANCE manages the University’s
faculty recruitment training for search
committees, to enable fair, inclusive and
effective searches. In a survey of attendees, 84
percent who responded said they became more
aware of potential bias in the search process.
Workshops include reviews of case studies,
training on cognitive bias in committee
discussions and a review of the potential
impact of job advertisements, including how
they are written and where they are posted.
“We believe it is critical for departments
to think inclusively when conducting
faculty searches,” Lorden says. “We have
reached hundreds of search committee
Mentee Janaka Lewis (left) and mentor Lisa Walker discussed ways to balance demands on faculty’s time.
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 35
feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
members through these workshops, giving
them resources to guide their work and
allowing them to share effective practices.”
ADVANCE Helps Faculty
Grow in their Varied Roles
While much of the work by ADVANCE
is systemic and large-scale, other efforts are
geared toward individual faculty members.
Mentoring and leadership development
opportunities can be key to faculty success,
says ADVANCE Faculty Director Yvette
Huet, who also is a biology professor.
“Attracting diverse faculty is important
for the continued growth of our university,”
Huet says. “We also believe it is essential to
help our new and existing faculty expand
their leadership and their knowledge.”
The mentoring program offers
professional support for tenure-track
faculty, as they move towards promotion
and tenure. One signature program
matches junior faculty members with senior
colleagues who are outside their home units,
as a supplement to the mentoring that also
occurs within a faculty member’s discipline
or program.
ADVANCE also directs peer-mentoring
programs with mid-career faculty, and
senior faculty members from across
the university meet as groups to share
information and support each other,
especially regarding career advancement.
Kim Buch of the psychology department
directly oversees the mid-career mentoring
effort, while Huet coordinates the early
career mentoring.
“Mentors can help new faculty become
socialized to the university culture and to
learn about resources and opportunities,”
Huet says “We think this also enhances
our intellectual community and builds
bridges between colleges and departments.
As our university raises its stature in
interdisciplinary research, the mentoring
efforts can be an efficient and personal way
to grow connections.”
To be successful, mentors and
mentees need to understand each other’s
expectations, say mentor Robin Coger and
her mentee, Xiuxia Du. “You have to be
on the same page as to what the mentee
is hoping to gain from the relationship,”
Coger says. “It’s important to have that
discussion early. Another critical step is
establishing trust.”
Du joined UNC Charlotte’s Department
of Bioinformatics & Genomics as an
assistant professor in 2008. She has found
invaluable the relationships and knowledge
that Coger has amassed and shared, most
recently in Coger’s roles as professor of
Mechanical Engineering and Engineering
Science and director of the Center for
Biomedical Engineering Systems.
“Robin thinks of me not only when we’re
talking in person but also at other times,”
Du says. “She is so gracious. She has sent
me articles and told me about workshops.
She has a broader perspective. She gives
specific solutions when I have issues, but
she also sees deeper.”
Mentor Lisa Slattery Walker, professor
and chair of the Sociology Department, and
her mentee Janaka Lewis, assistant professor
in the English Department, consider ways
to balance teaching and research, as well as
professional and family life.
“How I see my job as a mentor is not
to tell people how to do things but to help
them figure out what works for them,”
Walker says. “The way to be successful as a
faculty member is to figure out what works
for you. I try to see where the person is and
what they need.”
Lewis has applied what she gained from
Walker as well as her department chair and
others in her department. “This has also
helped to supplement the information I was
receiving in my department,” she says. “It
helps the interactions to be very human. I see
what is possible at UNC Charlotte. I haven’t
seen limits. Being here this first year and
being with people who were encouraging me
has extended that view for me.”
Other ADVANCE initiatives include:
Leadership UNC Charlotte, a year-long
seminar series focused on issues rising
leaders face and offered to a group of no
more than 24 selected faculty;
A year-long new faculty orientation
covering issues including plagiarism,
communication and effective use of new
media and information technology;
Facilitated sessions between long-standing
and newly appointed chairs;
Forums when the deans and the provost
discuss promotion criteria with associate
professors;
Informal gatherings of faculty peer
groups, called Focus Energy Fridays;
A women’s speakers series highlighting
practical ideas for growing leadership and
an inclusive climate;
Bonnie Cone Fellowships, awarded
to new and mid-career female faculty in
STEM fields, to help grow their careers and
leadership; and Faculty climate surveys.
Lynn Roberson is project director
for communication in the
ADVANCE Faculty Affairs Office.
ADVANCE offers leadership development courses,
such as this one attended by Ying Lu of the Belk
College of Business (center.)
Mentor Robin Coger and mentee Xiuxia Du say
trust is critical to mentoring partnerships.
36 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | stake your claim prof i le
Since the advent of the printing press the
art of oral story telling has been eclipsed
by the written word. The shift has become
more pronounced in the present digital age,
when it seems people are eager to share even
the most mundane details of their lives in
writing. But oral historical accounts have
distinct value apart from the written record.
Buried in the memories of the
townspeople are the reminiscences of events
and personal interactions that form the
foundation of a community’s collective
identity. Oral histories uncover and preserve
these reminiscences; and sometimes they
even help level the historical playing field.
“You are probably
familiar with the
old adage ‘History
is written by the
winners.’ In a very
basic sense, sharing
one’s story and having
a voice is an exercise
in power; it is a way of
adding one’s version of
events to complement
and compete with the stories of others,”
Arnold said.
Implicit in the act of listening is the
message that everyone has a story to tell,
that no one is anonymous.
“Even in a place like
McClellanville people
become more aware
they have stories when
they encounter people
who haven’t heard the
stories and are eager to
listen. I hear it in the
pride of their voices
when we talk with one
another,” Watson explained.
Rothwell conceived of the project after
visiting Watson.
Rothwell said she often is asked, “Why
McClellanville?” In tandem with the
connection to Watson, and considerations
of student well-being — the town can
be traversed on foot and provides a safe
learning environment — McClellanville
not only is a place where the past has
been preserved, but also is an example of
the nexus between tradition and cultural
transition.
“It’s the sort of place that still has
a distinctive identity,” Watson said.
“McClellanville never really went through
the Civil Rights movement.”
The racial divide is both physical and
metaphorical. Whites live within the literal
boundaries of the village, and the Black
community surrounds the village proper.
Many of the townspeople are descendants
of slaves or plantation owners, and there is
very little contact between the races.
Since her oral history interview with
two African-American honors students,
that has changed for Charlotte Morris, a
McClellanville native now in her 70s. After
the interview, Morris told Watson that she
really enjoyed talking with the students
and that her experience made her think
differently about issues of race.
“The wall between diverse communities
crumbled a bit to create an opening
for dialogue and mutual interest,”
Rothwell said.
Continued dialogue among community
members, Black and White, might be the
only thing standing between McClellanville
and major demographic changes.
Many residents remarked to student
interviewers that their village has become
a popular sanctuary for transplants, mostly
retirees, and tourists. In fact, some residents
Continued from p. 25
The sun sets in the village of McClellanville,
population 400.
McClellanville resident Charlotte Morris is
pictured here in her youth.
Robert Arnold
Connie Rothwell
feel the town is “in danger” of becoming a
resort community.
In recent years, land and property
prices in McClellanville have skyrocketed,
rendering it nearly impossible for the
younger generation of inhabitants to remain
in their hometown.
Whatever changes lie ahead for the town,
the oral history project has helped capture
the character of McClellanville as it was,
and as it is – and with a little moral and
financial support, UNC Charlotte’s UHP
students might return to document the
town’s future.
Lisa A. Patterson is senior writer
in the Office of Public Relations.
The wall
between diverse
communities
crumbled a bit to
create an opening
for dialogue and
mutal interest.
BLEEDS GREEN & GOLD
GOING FOR GOLD AGAIN
IN 2010.
The second annual UNC Charlotte 4.Niner K Scholarship Run/Walk is drawing
near. This is your chance to stake your claim alongside community leaders,
UNC Charlotte alumni, faculty and staff, and friends. Run, walk, or stroll your
way through a family-friendly 4.9k course. All race proceeds go to help fund
need-based scholarships. Sign up and stake your claim for UNC Charlotte today!
RUN/WALK FUNDRAISER FOR NEED-BASED SCHOLARSHIPS
REGISTER
10-23-10 TODAY
Jordan Easton
Last year’s winner & UNC Charlotte Student
38 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | Class Notes
1970s
Michael D. Evans, ’77, was elected chair
of the Fresno County Democratic Central
Committee. Evans previously served two
terms as chair of the Mecklenburg County
Democratic Party. He relocated when his
spouse, Yoshiko Takahashi (M.A. ‘02, Ph.D.
‘08), accepted a teaching position at
California State University, Fresno.
Jill S. Tietjen, PE, ’79, has been elected
by shareholders to Merrick & Company’s
Board of Directors. Tietjen is president
and CEO of Technically Speaking, a
consulting firm that serves the electric
utilities industry as well as organizations
that serve the electric utility industry.
Ward Simmons, ’79, recently completed
the Integrated Study and Practice
Program at the Barre Center for Buddhist
Studies in Massachusetts. He is currently
enrolled in the Community Dharma
Leader program at Spirit Rock Meditation
Center in California.
1980s
Scott Baxter, ’85, has written, directed
and produced the short film, “No
Asians…it’s just not my thing.” The film
has been accepted in 10 film festivals,
won a best actor award at the Boston
International film festival, and will be
shown in September at the Charlotte
Film Festival.
2000s
Cherry Owens, ’03, was recently
promoted to 4K coordinator at Northside
Academy for Early Learning.
Nichole McLaughlin, ’04, received a
Master’s Degree in Human Resources from
Western Carolina University in May 2010.
Trey Carpenter, ’07, married Ashley
Dooley in April 2010.
Nora Carr, ’08, received the 2010 National
School Public Relations Association
(NSPRA) Presidents Award.
Alumni Notes
12th Annual TIAA-Cref Alumni
Golf Outing in support of Dr. Gregory
Davis Need Based Scholarship takes
place on Monday Oct. 11 at Pine Island
Country Club. Come out and golf for
a good cause. The scholarship was
established in 2008 for students
with demonstrated financial need
who posses good academic standing.
Dr. Davis launched several programs
designed to keep students on track
with their college degree goals.
Tuition assistance through scholarship
is an important piece to the puzzle.
“Because I was a first generation
college student, scholarships,
federal and state aid made it
possible for my dream to come
true,” said Davis.
All Greek Reunion – meet us on
the 49 yard line. Renew old
acquaintances and create new
ones at the first annual All Greek
Reunion, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.,
Oct. 23, on Hayes Athletic Fields.
A $1,000 need-based scholarship
will be given to the Greek Organization
with the most paid participants.
See unccharlottealumni.org for
more details.
It is time to share what you’ve been up to
lately and let other alums help you toot your
horn or spread the word on small or large
achievements. We want to hear from you.
Visit the Alumni Affairs Web site at
www.unccharlottealumni.org and tell us what
you’ve been doing.
Or write Alumni Affairs,
UNC Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
What are you doing?
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 39
giving prof i le | UNC CHARLOTTE
The School of Nursing at UNC Charlotte
would like to thank Linet Americas, Inc. for
their generous donation of three state-of-the-art
hospital beds to the School’s Learning
Laboratories. Two Eleganza 3 beds, and
one Eleganza EZ bed, valued at more than
$23,000, were personally delivered by Colin
Bain, president and CEO; Bill Mauze, account
executive and UNC Charlotte alumnus and
their team.
College of Health and Human Services
Dean Karen Schmaling stated that “Integrating
the latest technology in hospital beds in our
Learning Resources Center will greatly enhance
the clinical and simulation training for our
nursing students. We would like to thank Linet
Americas for their generosity and ongoing
partnership with the School of Nursing.”
By incorporating feedback from nursing
faculty and students into the design of their
products, this ongoing partnership will
benefit both the School of Nursing and
Linet Americas, Inc. Founded just outside
of Prague, Czech Republic in 1990, Linet
has quickly become a leading producer of
hospital beds and patient room equipment
throughout the world. Linet’s products –
hospital beds, mattresses, furniture and
other medical care products – are sold in
more than 70 countries on all continents.
Linet products are developed in close
collaboration with healthcare professionals.
Linet Americas is the operating division
of Linet that services the Americas
marketplace. The company is headquartered
in Charlotte and provides localized sales and
service to customers in the region.
The School of Nursing prepares a
diverse nursing workforce to care for the
representative populations of the region,
generates and disseminates knowledge
through research on the life transitions
that affect the health outcomes of diverse
populations, and is a leader in its offering
of quality academic programs and use of
information technology to enhance learning
and to provide greater student access to both
undergraduate and graduate education.
High-tech Beds Enhance
Clinical Training
Nursing students express their appreciation for the new hospital beds donated by Linet Americas, Inc.
UNC CHARLOTTE | bui lding blocks
Three of UNC Charlotte’s legendary benefactors,
(left to right) Oliver Rowe, Addison Reese, and J.
Murrey Atkins welcome a gift into the University’s
coffers. The November 21, 1960, event was a
presentation of a check for $2,500 by Reese,
on behalf of North Carolina National Bank
(NCNB), to the Charlotte College Foundation. The
presentation was made at a luncheon following
the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Charlotte
College campus (on Highway 49). The Rowe Arts
building, Reese administration building and the J.
Murrey Atkins Library are named for these leaders.
Rowe was a University Patron of Excellence and
was president of the Rowe Corp., an enterprise
making products ranging from farm equipment to
synthetic fiber machinery. Reese was a longtime
banker who became chairman and CEO of NCNB
and served as chairman of the site selection
committee that chose today’s campus location.
He also served as chairman of the University’s
board of trustees from 1965-1972. Atkins was
a civic leader in education and was president
of R. S. Dickson & Company, a textiles
brokerage firm.
40 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
theJOYofGIVING
perspect ive | UNC CHARLOTTE
International Staff Intern Embraces UNC Charlotte
By Fatima Tauqir
After working with enthusiasm and
dedication for the last three years as Student
Affairs and Marketing Officer at NUST School
of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Sciences, in Islamabad, Pakistan, I was
highly motivated and engrossed in learning
more about the world and convinced of
the importance of global perspective. My
Director General Dr. Arshad and I contacted
a colleague at UNC Charlotte to arrange for a
professional internship dedicated to examining
and understanding student affairs and higher
education in the United States.
On my home campus in the School of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
I am responsible for the management of the
student affairs office and activities; developing,
coordinating and distributing marketing
materials reflecting School and University
interest and services; overseeing large events
for students including annual Open House,
Alumni Homecoming, Convocations, and
International Culture Day. I also manage the
Alumni Office of the school. As an alumnus of
the school’s program (I graduated in 2006 with
a degree in Information Technology), I bring
specific understanding of the school’s academic
offerings and the individual student experience.
Warmly welcomed by the UNC Charlotte
community, I immediately took advantage of
all the opportunities and within a month had
visited with a staggering number of campus
departments and units including: Student
Union, Student Activities, Career Services,
Counseling Center, Graduate School, Human
Resources, Housing and Residence Life,
Continuing Education, Development and
Alumni Affairs, International Students and
Scholars, and Student Affairs.
My meetings provided a platform from
which I built relationships and strengthened
my understandings of policies, system
and rules. Through this experience and
interaction I have learned a lot. It has
enhanced my ability to think and helped me
in diverse perception of things.
Apart from scheduling myself with all
these departments with my supervisor Marcia
Kiessling every week, I have also been keenly
engaged on the UNC Charlotte campus. I
led a discussion during Graduate Education
Week in March and presented about NUST
and Pakistan to the campus community in
April 16. I took professional development
courses at UNC Continuing Education.
Lastly as part of my internship experience I
worked with UNC Charlotte’s Intercultural
Outreach to help connect with a group of
MBA students from India.
I attended an array of seminars, workshops
and various other campus activities that are
being arranged for the students, faculty and
staff. I find people working in a collegial and
organized manner. During my interactions
I have tried to study and observe how these
good quality methods and procedures
practiced at UNC Charlotte can be
incorporated in my parent university,
back home.
I enjoyed life in the United States,
including traveling, shopping and cooking. I
have a passion for cooking and trying dishes
from around the world and loved seeing the
behind-the-scenes-work of the Chartwells
culinary team at UNC Charlotte. In my last
two weeks in the United States I traveled
from lush beautiful greenery of Charlotte
to the amazing Golden Gate Bridge of San
Francisco to Malibu on the Pacific Ocean,
and then to Manhattan in New York,
experiencing different yet amazingly diverse
cultures in three states.
My camera was always at-the-ready from
my first ever experience with snow and then
twice again, to the beautiful colorful spring
and in the end to the blazing hot summer,
giving me the best six months of my life.
I was recognized at 5th Annual
International Women’s Day. I made
extremely wonderful and talented mentors
and friends and had an experience which I
never thought was meant to happen. At the
end, I hope my experience will bring about
a positive change in terms of innovation
in NUST processes that enable maximum
support to students and faculty members.
Through this internship opportunity I
have tried to establish a strong partnership
through collaborative exchange programs
between NUST and UNC Charlotte.
I take this opportunity to express
my gratitude to UNC Charlotte for
providing me this international exposure.
It has enhanced my life and polished my
professional skills beyond my expectations.
The University of North Carolina
at Charlotte
9201 University Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
Nonprofit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Charlotte, NC
Permit No. 949
The Charlotte 49ers football
team wil take the field in 2013
at a brand new on-campus stadium.

UNC Charlotte The magazine of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte for Alumni and Friends • v17 q3 • 2010
Places just beneath
the surface
Alumnus makes art his business
UNC CHARLOTTE magazine www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | chancel lor ’s let ter
We are as
committed as
ever to making
the educational
and co-curricular
experiences at
UNC Charlotte the
very best that
they can be.
Where We Stand: Remaining Mission-Minded
In our last issue I wrote about the challenges
confronting the Governor and members of the
General Assembly in assembling a state budget
while grappling with a slow economic recovery
and uncertain state revenues. For a good part
of this summer, it appeared that the outlook
for the University budget was extremely poor
and that the campus would again have to make
large reductions in classroom offerings, student
support, and administrative services. In the
last weeks of the legislative session, however, a
consensus was reached that tuition increases
larger than previously planned would have to be
part of the solution.
At UNC Charlotte, our Trustees accepted
my recommendation that annual tuition for
resident North Carolina undergraduate students
be increased by $708. Trustees also supported
the allocation of additional campus resources for
financial aid for needy students, supplementing
approximately $34 million in additional aid
allocated by the General Assembly. In all, while
not a perfect solution, the compromise reached
was one that will permit us to continue to serve
our students with an adequate array of courses
and supply of instructors. At the same time, we
recognize that the increased financial burden
upon some of our students and their families
will be challenging. As a result, in addition to
supplementing the financial aid packages of the
neediest students, we will debut a new textbook
rental program that promises to save students
hundreds of dollars in purchasing costs.
Noteworthy among the budget decisions
was the very positive news that UNC Charlotte
will receive the remaining $3 millon of a $5
million request partially funded last year to
support the hiring of faculty and technical staff
for our new $71 million Energy Production and
Infrastructure Center. These funds and the new
building will help us respond comprehensively
to the demand for new engineers to serve the
growing number of energy-related industries in
the greater Charlotte region.
Another important development was final
approval by the General Assembly and the
Governor of the construction of facilities needed
to launch the UNC Charlotte football program;
in fact, it’s a done deal — we will field a football
team in 2013. After more than three years of
study and analysis, the Board of Trustees and
the UNC Board of Governors approved plans
to move forward with the football program
using a combination of student fees, private
contributions, and seat license and ticket sales.
Among the first signs of forward progress will be
construction starting next spring on a permanent,
15,000-seat stadium, field house, and practice
fields on campus. I encourage you to read more
about this monumental occasion on page 3 of
the magazine.
In the meantime, while we have been toasting
the final approval of football, a very exciting
“first” has taken place. The 15 students selected
as the inaugural class of Levine Scholars have
returned from the journey of a lifetime. As
part of our premiere, merit-based scholarship
program, Levine Scholars take part in a 25-day
leadership expedition in Wyoming. The scholars
left on July 11, and we are ecstatic that all have
returned unscathed, and a little transformed,
from what was an arduous and enlightening
trip. They experienced the beauty of my former
stomping grounds, got to know each other,
and participated in activities to enhance their
leadership skills. I wouldn’t be surprised if a
few of them returned to Charlotte with a new
taste for country music, as did I.
While traversing the wilderness, the students
documented the experience using hand-held
digital cameras. You can see the American
outback through their eyes on UNC
Charlotte’s YouTube channel.
With this news, we usher in the 2010-2011
academic year. We expect to exceed 25,000
students for the first time in our history, with
enrollment growth fueled principally by students
staying in school longer while waiting for jobs to
open up and increased demand for our graduate
programs. As the federal stimulus money leaves
the state budget next year, there will certainly
be challenges ahead. I can assure you, however,
that we are as committed as ever to making
the educational and co-curricular experiences
at UNC Charlotte the very best that they can
be and to fully delivering upon our mission as
North Carolina’s urban research university.
Cordially,
Philip L. Dubois
Chancellor
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 1
contents | UNC CHARLOTTE
On the cover:
UNC Charlotte alumnus Duy Huynh has enjoyed success as an artist and proprietor of Lark and Key
gallery. This painting, among his latest works, is titled “Transfer of Grace (2),” acrylic on canvas.
features
3 Done Deal! - Football
Gets Final Approval
8 Bioinformatics - Seeking
Great Discoveries
in Nutrition
10 A Gallery of One’s Own
18 Unearthing the
Origins of Empire
24 Tell It Like It Was
28 The Big Picture - Model
U.N. at UNC Charlotte
34 Helping Women
Faculty ADVANCE
departments
4 News Briefs
16 49ers Notebook
22 Center Stage
38 Class Notes
40 Building Blocks
41 Perspective
stake your claim profiles
7 Kaitlyn Tokay
14 Shannon McCallum
26 Nicole Cheslak
36 Harvey Murphy
8
18
28
2 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | edi tor ’s desk
Diversity That Enriches
Diversity – of thought, of expression, of life experiences,
of endeavor – really is essential to building greatness in a
campus community. This edition of UNC Charlotte highlights
diversity even more so than other recent editions. Our editorial
and design team have done a great job presenting this for our
readers, so please, as you page through this edition, give some
thought to what a wondrous community of people comprise
your University today.
Examples: Artist and alum Duy Huynh merges an
immigrant’s perspective into his paintings that reflect
geographical and cultural displacement. Professor Akin
Ogundiran actually digs for history in his native Africa,
unearthing knowledge about the nature of empire, wherever
it may develop. Student Kaitlyn Tokay, a self-espoused “freegan” goes to great
lengths to salvage what others waste. Student-athlete Shannon McCallum
is turning a disadvantaged childhood into a successful college career. The
University’s ADVANCE program is helping female academicians climb the career
ladder. This treasure of divergent perspectives and experiences greatly enrich
our campus community, but even beyond that, it enhances lives in the greater
Charlotte community.
I am definitely biased, but I’m going to repeat a favorite assertion: UNC
Charlotte does good! It is an absolute gem, and like a gem it enriches those who
own it. Own UNC Charlotte.
Regards,
Volume 17, Number 3
Philip L. Dubois
Chancellor
Gene Johnson
Chair of the Board of Trustees
Niles Sorensen
Interim Vice Chancellor for University
Relations and Community Affairs
Editor
Director of Public Relations
John D. Bland
Creative Director
Fabi Preslar
Contributing Writers
Rhiannon Bowman
Phillip Brown
Cliff Mehrtens
Paul Nowell
Lisa A. Patterson
Lynn Roberson
Buffie Stephens
Staff Photographer
Wade Bruton
Circulation Manager
Cathy Brown
Design & Production
SPARK Publications
UNC Charlotte is published four times a
year by The University of North Carolina
at Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd.,
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
ISSN 10771913
Editorial offices:
Reese Building, 2nd floor
The University of North Carolina
at Charlotte
9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223
704.687.5825; Fax: 704.687.6379
The University of North Carolina at
Charlotte is open to people of all races and
is committed to equality of educational
opportunity and does not discriminate
against applicants, students or employees
based on race, color, national origin, religion,
sex, sexual orientation, age or disability.
Printed on
recycled paper
17,500 copies of this publication were printed
at a cost of $.52 per piece, for a total cost of $9,210.
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
John D. Bland, Editor
Director of Public Relations
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 3
Done Deal!
Charlotte 49ers Football Gets Final Approval
It’s official. The Charlotte 49ers will start
football in the fall of 2013.
In early August, nearly three and a half
years after the UNC Charlotte Board of
Trustees authorized a study of the feasibility
of establishing an intercollegiate football
program, Governor Beverly Perdue signed
the University Non-Appropriated Capital
Project bill that included the funding plan
for the 49ers football stadium construction,
effectively placing the final piece of the 49ers
football puzzle.
“With the Governor’s signature
endorsing the General Assembly’s approval
of construction of our football-related
facilities, we open a new chapter in the
dynamic history of UNC Charlotte,” said
UNC Charlotte Chancellor Philip L.
Dubois. “The path to this point has been
a lengthy but carefully considered one,
from the Trustees’ decision in late 2006
to authorize a study of the feasibility of
football to final approval by the Board of
Governors this past spring.”
The 49ers have cleared no less than
eight hurdles since that Sept.18, 2008
recommendation – most in unanimous
fashion.
The Charlotte 49ers will play football
in 2013.
“We’ve done it,” said 49ers Director
of Athletics Judy Rose. “To think that
what was started way back with the initial
feasibility study – and even before that with
the grassroots movement – has now received
the final go-ahead – it’s extremely satisfying.
This has not been an easy process, but
nothing worthwhile ever is. There are
no more ifs, no more votes, no more
approvals. We will play football in 2013.
It’s a done deal.”
The 49ers first pushed forward with the
premise to start a football program when an
appointed Football Feasibility Committee,
chaired by community leader Mac Everett,
presented its unanimous recommendation
to Dubois in February of 2008. On Sept. 16
of that year, two days before the Chancellor
was to make his recommendation after
months of his own due diligence, the
University’s student body held a pep
rally in support of adding football. With
the student’s backing, the University
gave its approval, first in the form of the
Chancellor’s recommendation and then on
Nov. 13, 2008 when the University’s Board
Continued on p. 17
“There are no
more ifs, no more
votes, no more
approvals. We
will play football
in 2013. It’s
a done deal.”
4 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
“We have also shown that the same
strategy can be used to control the tool
temperature, which is strongly related to
the tool wear, and tool wear is a big driver
for difficult-to-machine materials including
titanium, stainless steel, and nickel alloys,”
Smith said. “For this reason, the technology
has applications in power turbines and jet
engines, for example.”
Africana Studies to
Collaborate with Friends
of Historic Cemetery
UNC Charlotte’s Africana Studies
department announced that it is
collaborating with The Friends of Old
Westview Cemetery, Inc. to develop a long-range
plan to help restore the more than
150-year-old cemetery in Wadesboro.
Since the passing of the cemetery’s
caretaker in the 1960s, the cemetery has
become overgrown and neglected, according
to friends of the cemetery.
Participating in the Martin Luther King
Day of Service earlier this year, members
of the Africana Studies Club, a student
organization at the University, led a
project which involved cleaning and
documenting grave markers. The
collaboration grew out of the service project
and was recently announced during a
Friends of Old Westview Cemetery board of
directors meeting.
Old Westview Cemetery was founded
in the mid-19th century and has served as
the primary burial ground for Wadesboro’s
African-American community. Many
citizens who contributed to Wadesboro’s
post-emancipation African-American
community are buried in Old Westview.
Researchers Noted for
Industrial Innovation
A research team of engineers from the
U.S. Department of Energy’s Y-12 National
Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and
UNC Charlotte has won a coveted 2010
“R&D 100 Award” from R&D Magazine.
The innovation award, which is given
annually to recognize the 100 most
technologically significant new products
of the year, was for the development of a
sophisticated new method that eliminates
the formation of long, dangerous strips of
metal (“chips”) in the process of machining
ductile materials.
The team included William E. Barkman
and Edwin F. Babelay Jr. from Y-12 and
K. Scott Smith, Thomas S. Assaid, Justin
T. McFarland, and David A. Tursky
from UNC Charlotte, and former UNC
Charlotte students Bethany Woody (now at
InsituTec) and David Adams (now at Moore
Nanotechnology Systems).
Smith, who headed the university-based
group and is professor and chair in UNC
Charlotte’s Department of Mechanical
Engineering, noted that ductile metals
“have a tendency to make long stringy
chips, which tangle up and often make
a big ‘bird’s nest.’” These tangled chips
can damage the workpiece or cause
operator injury.
Manual removal of the chips is a
dangerous process, Smith notes, so the
innovation is likely to prevent numerous
injuries. The procedure will also
have a significant impact on costs in
metal manufacturing.
UNC CHARLOTTE | news br iefs
news briefs
Fellowship Honors Susan Burgess
To honor the legacy of long-time public servant,
city council member and mayor pro tem Susan
Burgess, who died in June, UNC Charlotte is
establishing an endowed fellowship in her name.
The Susan M. Burgess Fellowship in Public
Administration at UNC Charlotte will be given
annually to help a master’s student become a
community leader.
An at-large member of city council since 1999,
Burgess chaired the City Council Housing and
Neighborhood Development and Economic
Development committees during her tenure. In
addition to serving as mayor pro tem for six years,
Burgess served on the Charlotte Mecklenburg
Board of Education from 1990 to 1997, the last two years as chair.
According to friends and admirers, they wished to establish a lasting legacy
in her honor, in the city she loved and served. Her friends felt it fitting that the
fellowship be created at UNC Charlotte because so many city, county and police
members are graduates of the Master in Public Administration program, housed in
the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ Department of Political Science.
Contributions to the Susan M. Burgess Fellowship in Public Administration can
be made through the UNC Charlotte Foundation Web site https://giving.uncc.
edu; click on the “make a gift” link or mail contributions to the UNC Charlotte
Foundation, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, N.C. 28223.
Susan Burgess
Ed Babelay, Bill Barkman, Scott Smith, David Tursky, Thomas Assaid, Bethany Woody,
Justin McFarland, David Adams
Bella the “Corpse
Flower” Blooms Again!
In June, UNC Charlotte’s titan arum bloomed again. Known at
the University as Bella, the titan arum or “corpse flower” is
exceptionally rare and known for its pungent stench.
Discovered in 1878, titan arums are the world’s largest
flowering structures and grow wild in the rainforests of
Sumatra. The plant rarely flowers in the jungle and even
more rarely when grown in cultivation.
The flowering structure – which can reach nearly nine
feet and open to a diameter of three to four feet – opens
only for a few days. Thousands of tiny flowers are hidden
inside the central column, called the spadix. On the day
the flower opens, the plant smells repulsive (similar
to rotting flesh) and can be detected from half a
mile away.
More than 2,400 visitors
came to the greenhouse to
see – and smell – Bella.
The bloom lasted only three
days, and the putrid smell
lasted only the first day, but
that’s when Bella was the
most spectacular.
UNC Charlotte’s Bella has
only bloomed once before,
on July 1, 2007. She was nine
years old, which is relatively young
for a titan to bloom. At the time,
UNC Charlotte was only the 20th U.S.
institution to cultivate a bloom and the first
in the Southeast. More than 4,000 people
visited campus to view the spectacular plant.
The cemetery is currently on the “Study
List” of historical places and is eligible for
placement on the National Register.
UNC Charlotte faculty and students
will conduct research on the historical
significance of the all-black cemetery
and develop public educational
programs on the history of Wadesboro
and the biographies of those buried in
Old Westview.
Undergrads Get
Prestigious Scholarships
for Study Abroad
Four UNC Charlotte undergraduate
students have received prestigious
Benjamin Gilman International
Scholarships to study abroad during the
2010-11 academic year.
Jessica Craig, Hugh Kinsey, Eber Pena
and Lilia Shaforostov will receive awards
between $3,000 and $5,000. Craig, a
junior majoring in social work, will spend
the entire year at the University of Ghana.
Computer science major and Japanese
minor Kinsey will spend the year at
Japan’s Gakushuin University. Heidelburg
University in Germany is the destination
for Pena, a German and history major
who is pursuing a minor in international
studies. Shaforostov, a junior pre-business
major, also will attend the University of
Ghana for the fall.
“The best education comes from
experience, and I want to go further than
the routine of making it to class,” said
Shaforostov, who views study abroad as
part of a “real” education. “I want to
experience learning with someone who
has a different perception of it, and I
want to experience this journey as
something that can be passed on to
others – to remind everyone that there
is a whole world out there.”
49er Factoid: Alums Abound
Did you know that 12 percent of all
college graduates in the Charlotte region
are alums of UNC Charlotte? It’s true.
According to data obtained by the Office
of Development, the Charlotte region is
home to more than 200,000 49ers.
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 5
Bella, the titan arum, bloomed in June.
6 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | news br iefs
news briefs
Textbook Rental Program
Wil Help Students Economize
Barnes & Noble at UNC Charlotte
will provide a textbook rental option for
Fall 2010 semester. The new program will
allow students to rent textbooks for 45
percent of the cost of purchasing a
new textbook.
Students will be able to rent books in the
store or from the bookstore’s Web site.
The new rental option is a cooperative
commitment between UNC Charlotte
Business Services and Barnes & Noble
College Booksellers for textbook
affordability.
Textbook rental program features:
• Rental period is for the duration of the
semester. Books are due back at the
bookstore 10 days after the last day of
finals. Students can return the books in
person or mail them to the bookstore.
• Students may highlight or mark the rented
books just as they would a purchased book
with plans to sell it back.
• Students may pay the rental fees by cash,
check, credit, debit, 49er Account or Barnes
& Noble gift cards. (For security purposes,
a valid credit card must also be provided
regardless of the rental payment method).
• Students may convert their rental to a
purchase during the first two weeks of class.
• An e-mail to remind students to return
their books will be sent near the end of the
semester. Books not returned, or returned
in unsalable condition, will be subject to
replacement and processing fees.
“UNC Charlotte is dedicated to giving
our students as many options as possible
and to let students drive the decisions about
textbook affordability,” said Karen Natale,
the University’s bookstore and licensing
contract manager. “Whether they want
new, used, digital, open source, or rentable
textbooks, it’s all available at the University.”
Nursing Students Win
Video Competition
In May, three teams of UNC Charlotte
nursing students topped the competition
for the Innovative Nursing Education
Technologies (iNet) “Get the Picture Patient
Education Video” awards.
Each group of senior nursing students
won $1,000, and the videos were showcased
at the iNET 2010 conference “Enhancing
Nursing Curriculum with Technology: High
Touch, High Tech” held at UNC Charlotte
in August.
Innovative Nursing Education Technologies
(iNET) is a collaborative among the schools of
nursing at Duke University, UNC Charlotte
and Western Carolina University. It is federally
funded through the Health Services Research
Academy. Nursing teams developed a video
to educate the public about a selected list of
health concerns, including smoking cessation,
hypertension and risk factors of stroke.
This summer, a movie version of the book, “The Fat Boy
Chronicles,” premiered at UNC Charlotte. Almost 1,000
people attended the premiere at the Student Union, providing
UNC Charlotte with another chance to showcase the campus
to children, parents and local civic leaders.
Inspired by a true story, “The Fat Boy Chronicles” follows
14-year-old Jimmy as he enters the freshman year of high
school and chronicles his struggle with bullying and obesity.
Based on the book by Diane Lang and Michael Buchanan,
the movie follows Jimmy’s adjustment to a new school.
Through his eyes, heart, and journal, we share the physical,
psychological, and social consequences of obesity. Jimmy is a
survivor, but while teens, parents, and educators may applaud
his accomplishments, they also learn about what life is like for
vulnerable teens facing daily self-doubt and discrimination.
The most recent national Youth Risk Behavior Survey indicated
that the largest percentage of schoolchildren who are bullied
attributed that bullying to body size. The premiere of “The Fat
Boy Chronicles” was the first step in launching Charlotte, Get
Your Move On!, a community initiative modeled after Let’s Move,
a nationwide campaign to tackle childhood obesity.
The Charlotte screening is a collaboration among Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Schools; Teen Health Connection, a community
health partner of Levine Children’s Hospital; UNC Charlotte;
and publisher Sleeping Bear Press.
Stars of “The Fat Boy Chronicles,” gathered here with Chancellor Dubois
and Lisa Lewis Dubois, attended the national movie premiere on campus.
‘The Fat Boy Chronicles: The
Movie’ Premieres on Campus
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 7
stake your claim prof i le | UNC CHARLOTTE
The refrigerator door swings open to
reveal fully stocked shelves of food —
far more than one person would need.
According to Kaitlyn Tokay, that’s kind of
the point. Tokay removed all of the food
from a dumpster at a nearby grocery store.
The UNC Charlotte junior hasn’t paid for
groceries in well over a month.
During her experiment in “dumpster
diving,” Tokay has rescued countless cakes,
pies, loaves of bread, fruits and vegetables,
and even dairy and meat products, from
the trash heap. The international business
major practices freeganism, a lifestyle whose
adherents buy and use as little as possible.
From the clothes she wears to the bike
she rides to and from her job as a YMCA
lifeguard and swim instructor, Tokay lives
the principles of freeganism. Tokay recently
decided to extend the practice to what
she eats.
While dumpster diving fits with
her freegan lifestyle, Tokay said she is
experimenting with the practice to raise
awareness of poverty, homelessness and
wastefulness.
Taking the Plunge
Dumpster Diving for a Cause
Kaitlyn Tokay
hopes to
raise awareness
of poverty,
homelessness
and
wastefulness. Continued on p. 31
Kaitlyn Tokay, who espouses a “freegan” lifestyle, was surprised by the amount of food items wasted on a
daily basis. Pictured here are some of the items she recently salvaged from a local grocery store dumpster.
By Lisa A. Patterson
8 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
Cory Brouwer accepts the fact most
people can only achieve a limited grasp of
his work as the director of UNC Charlotte’s
Bioinformatics Services Division at the
North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC).
And that’s just fine with Brouwer, who
realizes his scientific expertise is narrowly
focused but increasingly important to
mankind. He recently came aboard from the
pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. to oversee
the University’s bioinformatics research
program at David Murdock’s $1 billion
brainchild in nearby Kannapolis.
Scientists from several other leading
universities – including Duke, UNC Chapel
Hill and other UNC system schools – will
benefit from the work done by UNC
Charlotte researchers as they work on their
own research.
“This is a great opportunity for UNC
Charlotte to introduce our capabilities in
this vital area to other leading scientists,”
Brouwer said in an interview in his office at
NCRC. “When you are only a short walk
down the hall from these researchers, it’s
much easier to overcome some of the things
that can distance us. It leads to better and
more effective collaboration.”
That’s why UNC Charlotte decided to
open the division in the Core Laboratory
Building at the NCRC, a 350-acre research
park that will be home to the research
programs of biotechnology companies as well
as university and medical research programs.
There they will work, often in
collaboration with their peers, in hopes of
achieving Murdock’s vision to make NCRC
a nucleus for great discoveries in nutrition,
health and biotechnology research.
Brouwer said the UNC Charlotte team
will look for opportunities to collaborate
with researchers from private industry
and other universities on their own
groundbreaking work.
Some of those projects include:
• UNC Chapel Hill’s Nutrition Research
Institute will develop innovative
approaches to understand the role of diet
and activity in normal brain development,
cancer prevention, and the prevention and
treatment of obesity.
• The North Carolina State University
Fruit and Vegetable Science Institute
will utilize emerging technologies for
plant improvement and human health
benefits. The goal is to develop a new
generation of fruits and vegetables with
advanced nutritional and horticultural
characteristics.
Researchers from Duke University are
conducting the so-called MURDOCK Study,
which has been compared with the 1948
Framingham Heart Study that followed
generations of residents of the city in
Massachusetts. Researchers expect to recruit
some 50,000 people from the Cabarrus and
Kannapolis areas, sequence their genomes,
and identify associations to disease.
In addition, researchers from Appalachian
State University, North Carolina Central
University, N.C. A&T State University and
UNC Greensboro are setting up operations
for various research projects in the Core Lab.
Brouwer received a doctorate in
molecular biology at Iowa State University
and started his career in the fledgling
bioinformatics department at Pioneer Hi-
Bred. After helping build the group there he
moved to Connecticut to join a company
called CuraGen and spent several years in
the biotech world. Later he moved over to
large pharma working for Pfizer, first in
Connecticut, but most recently directing
a computational sciences group in the
United Kingdom.
His background is in bioinformatics,
which uses powerful computers to solve
complex problems in biology. Without
bioinformatics, he said, researchers would
Great Discoveries
in Nutrition
Bioinformatics stakes its claim at N.C. Research Campus
By Paul Nowell
The Core Lab at N.C. Research Campus
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 9
never be able to process the huge amount of
information the biotech discovery process
now generates.
For example, none of the powerful
antiviral drugs approved in recent years
would have come to the market without the
use of bioinformatics to crunch the data.
Brouwer compares it to a tool most
people can understand: a spreadsheet. That
was what researchers had at their disposal
before the advent of bioinformatics.
“You could never fit all the gigabytes
and even terabytes of data needed for one
experiment on one Excel spreadsheet,” he
said. “You need our expertise to process all
this data and we have the critical mass needed
for these researchers to do their work.”
UNC Charlotte is invested in
bioinformatics. In August 2009, the
University’s Bioinformatics Research Center
(BRC) moved into a new $35 million
building on the Charlotte Research Institute
Campus of UNC Charlotte. The building
offers space for both wet and dry laboratories,
and includes core facilities for molecular
biology, proteomics, and computing.
“The work being done in life sciences and
biotechnology in the 21st Century is really
equivalent to what was being done in physics
and electronics in the 20th Century,” said
Larry Mays, director of UNC Charlotte’s
Bioinformatics Center. “It’s vitally important
for this university to be actively engaged in
this biotechnology enterprise.”
The BRC took a leadership role in
developing bioinformatics programs in
collaboration with the developers of the
NCRC. Brouwer and his colleagues will
focus on the development of novel analytical
methods for knowledge discovery in large
biological datasets.
“The NCRC provides us with a real
opportunity for UNC Charlotte to be
closely involved in this cutting-edge work,”
Mays said. “One of the key problems facing
biotechnology is trying to make sense of
the enormous amount of data in these
research projects.”
Research at the division will enable
basic and applied researchers to ask and
answer complex questions in molecular and
population biology, to manage and navigate
the vast data sets that are generated by
modern molecular biology methods, and to
translate the results into practical benefits
through understanding of the interacting
effects of health, nutrition, development,
and behavior.
Mays said UNC Charlotte’s presence in
the Core Lab at NCRC also gives faculty
members an opportunity to develop new
technological tools for the future. Besides
Brouwer, other UNC Charlotte faculty
members are working at NCRC, including
Ann Loraine and Xiuxia Du .
Finally, Mays said, the Bioinformatics
Services Division provides a rich training
ground for students to learn the skills
necessary to work in the field.
Murdock’s signature can be found
throughout the Core Lab Building, from
the imported Italian marble floors and rare
furniture to the distinctive yellow paint
(Murdock’s favorite color) on almost every
wall in the Core Lab.
Even the brightly-colored mural on
the ceiling above the lobby pays tribute
to his nutritional beliefs – it features a
cornucopia of fruits and vegetables. The
311,000-square-foot Core Lab Building
will house $150 million of state-of-the-art
scientific equipment that is available for use
by tenant universities and companies.
The most celebrated piece of equipment
is the Bruker 950-megahertz nuclear
magnetic resonance spectrometer, which
Sheetal Ghelani, business development
manager at the David H. Murdock Research
Institute, described as “the largest of its kind
in the Western Hemisphere.”
The two-story, eight-ton machine will
significantly enhance key areas of research,
such as drug development and nutrition.
The machine will allow scientists to deduce
the structure of larger and more complex
molecules and hopefully lead to discoveries
of new therapies.
As she led visitors on a tour of the Core
Lab Building, Ghelani pointed out some
of the technology available to the UNC
Charlotte researchers and their counterparts
from other universities, medical centers and
private businesses.
“What we really have here is an incredible
capacity; it’s not that we have equipment
that is completely unique,” she said. “What
is unique about this place is that we have
all these labs under one roof and there’s
unlimited potential to put the pieces
together to solve some large puzzles. “
Paul Nowell is media relations manager
in the Office of Public Relations.
“It’s vitally important
for this university
to be actively engaged
in this biotechnology
enterprise.”
Bioinformatics uses powerful computers to help solve complex problems in biology.
Gallery A
ofOne’s
Own
By Lisa A. Patterson
10 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
Local artist and UNC Charlotte alumnus Duy
Huynh has enjoyed a successful career making
paintings that demonstrate technical prowess
and imagination. Huynh and partner Sandy
Snead are the proprietors of Lark and Key
gallery, with locations in NoDa and South End.
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 11
feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
Stories in the form of paintings surround
Duy Huynh. All along the red brick walls,
ethereal figures float untethered against
earth-tone backgrounds that appear lit from
within. The paintings give off a soft glow,
contributing to the welcoming ambiance
of the Lark and Key Gallery in Charlotte’s
North Davidson neighborhood.
Huynh sits, clearly at ease amidst the
worlds he has created. He begins to tell his
story, starting at the beginning.
The Vietnamese-born artist and UNC
Charlotte alumnus emigrated to the United
States in 1981 with his parents and two
siblings. His family was among the massive
wave of refugees, or Boat People, to depart
Communist-controlled Vietnam in the
aftermath of the fall of Saigon.
Under the new communist government,
many people who supported the old
government were sent to “re-education
camps” and others to “new economic
zones.” More than one million people were
imprisoned without formal charges or trials,
and thousands were abused or tortured.
An uncertain future held far greater
appeal to hundreds of thousands of refugees
than the poverty and destruction of the
Vietnamese homeland.
“A lot of us were desperate for a way out
of the country and were willing to risk our
lives to get out. I was way too young to
understand the gravity of the whole trip,”
Huynh said. “I remember bits and parts – a
lot of dark, water, I remember sometimes
on the boat there wasn’t any food, and other
kids crying,” Huynh recalled. “My parents
said we were the best kids on the boat
because we were so well behaved – so much
so that they the others thought we were
hiding food from them.”
The figures in Huynh’s paintings are
neither here nor there – they occupy a space
somewhere between consciousness and the
deeper recesses of the mind. They point to a
place just beneath the surface, free from the
constraints of language, a place most of us
might only ever access in dreams.
The Boat People were rescued by the U.S.
Navy. They were moved from refugee camps
in Thailand and the Phillipines before
gaining sponsorship by a Buddhist temple
and thereby entry into Pomona, Calif.
“We were just really thankful to finally
make it to the states. I didn’t even know we
had arrived in America,” Huynh
said. “It was a total change from
the camps, and I really liked it.”
One, two, three. That was the
extent of Huynh’s English. The
six-year-old was enrolled in ESL
classes and entered public school
with a limited vocabulary and a
talent for drawing.
Chalk Board Child
Some of Huynh’s most
prominent memories of childhood
in Pomona include artistic
implements and aspirations.
Times were tough, money was
tight. Very few families in Huynh’s
neighborhood had discretionary
income to spend on toys, so the
children resorted to imagination for
their entertainment.
“I had a friend who lived close to
us and when I went to his house we
would play with a chalk board of all
things. I remember drawing my own comic
book adventures on the chalk board,”
Huynh said. “One of the earliest paintings
I did in college was a piece called ‘Chalk
Board Child.’ That piece has a lot of good
memories for me.”
Before Huynh mastered the language
or understood American cultural norms,
he tapped into the power of art as a
medium for communication. Handing
a classmate a drawing became a way to
forge connections across the language
barrier and make friends.
Huynh quickly moved beyond
coloring books and chalk boards
and onto more elaborate comics
and cartoons. Known as the “class
artist,” Huynh was interested in
painting but intimidated by the
medium. He nurtured his passion
by creating backdrops for school
programs and studying graffiti and
“A lot of us were desperate for a way
out of the country and were willing
to risk our lives to get out.”
12 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
“Art seemed
instantly
gratifying – I
could make
something
tangible.
That still
motivates
me.”
comic book art. Looking back, he says his
career path was clear as early as the
third grade.
“Art seemed instantly gratifying – I
could make something tangible. That still
motivates me,” Huynh said.
Eager for a change of pace, Huynh’s
family relocated to Charlotte in 1994. The
high school senior was immediately struck
by the number of trees lining the city’s
streets, filling its neighborhoods – the trees
were as prolific in Charlotte as the concrete
pylons supporting vast expanses of southern
California freeway.
A man and woman rest gently in each
other’s arms cradled by the branches of a
great tree, its curled roots visible below the
ground’s surface. The painting, “Place of
Steadiness,” suggests respite.
Huynh’s natural talent and enthusiasm
for art were the foundation for his entry
into UNC Charlotte as an art major. But
the many transformational experiences
Huynh had while an undergraduate student
laid the groundwork for his career as a
working artist.
As a freshman, Huynh bought into the
accepted wisdom that graphic design is the
only way to make money from the arts.
It wasn’t long before Huynh tired of
graphic design and decided to concentrate
on illustration. That is, until he took a
painting class as a sophomore. Numerous
painting classes and multiple
influential professors later, Huynh
was hooked. He graduated from
UNC Charlotte with concentrations
in painting and illustration and has
since gone back to the University
several times to speak to senior
seminar classes.
Huynh’s fellow students played
as much a role in his education as
his professors.
“I had already started showing my
work when I was still in school. Me and
four other guys got together and rented
a space called the Wrightnow Gallery, in
NoDa. We rented the space for a month,
split the cost and put on our first public
exhibitions. That was my first taste of doing
a gallery exhibition. Most of us weren’t
really that interested in selling work – it was
just having the exposure to it.”
After that Huynh sought every
opportunity to show his artwork. It could
be in a coffee shop, a friend’s restaurant, at
a music venue – he wanted his work “out
there,” and he wanted to know what people
thought of it.
Huynh was doing what he loved, but he
also had to pay the bills. He waited tables,
washed dishes, worked for a gallery in the
mall delivering artwork, worked the cash
register at Hardees, and even did the 9 to 5
at a company that specialized in stage design
and backdrops for performances. All of
those experiences served as motivation for
the artist to keep creating.
And then he gave up paying the bills,
sort of. When Huynh secured space at an
uptown studio, he gained the exposure
he needed.
“They were doing a lot of group shows.
I fell in love with the whole Bohemian
starving artist life there – I gave up my
apartment and lived out of the studio for
a while without a shower or a kitchen,”
Huynh said. However, “I didn’t live there
too long because you’re not supposed to,”
he noted. “You definitely learn to
be resourceful.”
At some time or another, every working
artist must confront the question of how to
price his or her work. Demand can drive up
prices, but where to start?
“You have to look at how much time
you put into the work, the complexity of
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 13
feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
the piece, and the emotional attachment,”
Huynh said. “Also, is the rent due, how
hungry am I, how much gas do I have in
my car…”
Galleries often garner a hefty commission
(around 50 percent), but they also provide
great exposure and guidance to artists who
might not be business savvy.
or this stage in my career – of course, Sandy
had a lot to do with it,” Huynh said. “We
were already organizing festivals and outdoor
shows with other artists and there was a certain
amount of interest and demand for my work. It
just felt right.”
Works by more than 40 different artists in
mediums varying from painting to jewelry to
pottery are on display at Lark and Key at any
given time.
Despite its rapid metamorphosis from
mill town to metropolis, Charlotte remains
traditional in its tastes, according to Snead.
More galleries that feature “everyday working
artists,” as well as increased public support for
their work, would advance Charlotte’s arts
scene, Snead said.
Huynh does not like to
speculate on Charlotte’s
art scene – where it is,
where it’s going, etc. He’s
far more interested in
telling stories.
“That’s what sparked my
interest in making pictures —
to be able to create characters
and put them in different
settings that make the viewer
curious about what’s going
on or draws their attention,”
Huynh said. “I use a lot of
symbolism – some are universal
symbols different cultures can
see and create their own stories
with and some symbols are
more personal, and you put these
symbols together and they create
their own language or story line.”
Huynh has achieved a measure of success
few working artists his age enjoy. He knows
this, and won’t be taking his autonomy
for granted.
“Years ago all I really wanted to do was have
the space and time to make my work, and the
forum to showcase it. I feel like I have all of
those to an extent,” he said. “But I still have the
drive and hunger to improve, and to continue
to explore.”
For more information about Huynh,
visit www.duyhuynh.com; go to
www.larkandkey.com for Lark and
Key gallery.
Lisa A. Patterson is senior writer
in the Office of Public Relations.
“All I really
wanted to do
was have the
space and time
to make my
work, and the
forum to
showcase it.”
Huynh talks briefly with his partner,
Sandy Snead, about a painting that is
leaning up against the wall. It is a new
work, featuring a woman suspended in air,
wearing a dress that appears to be made
of butterflies. She hovers gracefully above
a winding road and it’s impossible to tell
whether she will decide to touch down or
continue her ascent. Huynh has decided to
price the untitled painting at $6,000.
Now Huynh and Snead are in the
position to offer exposure to fellow artists
at their galleries, located in NoDa and
South End. The NoDa location of Lark and
Key gallery opened in 2008 and was the
realization of Huynh’s longtime dream.
“I felt it would be really nice to have my own
place one day, but it was a very farfetched thing.
I didn’t think I’d have my own place at this age
14 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | stake your claim prof i le
That Feeling You Shannon McCallum’s transition to
women’s college basketball wasn’t smooth.
Where the senior guard from Whiteville,
N.C., is now, compared to a few years ago,
is improbable and inspiring.
McCallum, Charlotte’s leading scorer
last season, originally committed to
South Carolina after a standout career at
Whiteville High. But her SAT test scores
and grade point average weren’t good
enough to qualify for college.
“It was hard coming out of high school,”
McCallum said. “I had a learning disability
(due to hearing deficiencies) since about
fifth or sixth grade.”
She landed in special classes, but said her
father realized that in order to reach college,
she’d need to return to the mainstream
school population. That’s where the
academic struggles ensued.
McCallum spent a year at Patterson
School, a college prep school in Caldwell
County, about 60 miles northwest of
Charlotte, before coming to UNC
Charlotte. She arrived in 2007, the same
season as head coach Karen Aston.
Star player becomes
leader, strives for diploma
By Cliff Mehrtens
Basketball is
what sparked
McCallum to
improve in
the classroom.
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 15
stake your claim prof i le | UNC CHARLOTTE
Can’t Coach
Adjusting to the rigors of college
academics took some adjustment, but
basketball is what sparked McCallum to
improve in the classroom.
Her grade point average is now close to a
3.0, and Aston said McCallum “now takes
pride in what she does academically.”
On the court, McCallum’s transition was
more dramatic.
Last season, she led the 49ers in scoring
(14.2 average), rebounding (7.3 per game),
assists (87), steals (80) and blocked shots (30).
McCallum will be a key component
on a team that was 18-14 last season,
but missed the NCAA Tournament.
The 49ers advanced to the second round
of the Women’s National Invitational
Tournament.
As a sophomore, McCallum was
dynamic as Aston’s first substitute off the
bench. She started only four of 31 games,
but averaged 12.2 points. McCallum
averaged more than 25 minutes per game,
as much as most of the starters. She helped
the 49ers win 23 games, and the Atlantic
10 Conference tournament championship,
the first in school history.
McCallum won the conference’s Sixth
Player of the Year award, and was named
to the all-conference tournament team.
“My goal is to try to win another
championship,” McCallum said. “Also,
personally my goal is to be a better person
as a teammate. I want to become a leader
on the team, but it’s hard. I’m trying to do
more talking, and saying positive things to
my teammates.”
Aston said she “puts a lot of weight
on my seniors,” a challenge McCallum is
eager to accept.
“The good part is Shannon’s been
through the wars of the A-10, and
understands the grind of the season. She’s
been part of a championship team, and
has that feeling you can’t coach. She wants
to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
Ultimately, Shannon wants to win.”
Aston said that during McCallum’s
freshman and sophomore seasons, she
couldn’t recall walking past the practice
gym without seeing McCallum hard
at work.
“She is a gym rat,” Aston said, laughing.
“She’s an atypical player who enjoys
practice, even though that grind is hard on
the body. It’s an outlet for her.”
McCallum’s dedication also spilled into
her class work, where she’s closing in on a
degree in Africana studies.
“I do take pride in my work,” she said. “I
need to get that diploma. I didn’t want to
come to school for nothing.”
This season also will be special as
McCallum’s sister Paige – a 5-foot-11 guard
– joins the 49ers. The sisters played together
two years in high school, and against each
other countless times.
Shannon McCallum will add big-sister
duties to her fledgling role of team leader.
“I’ve already told (Paige) that when we’re
on the court, she can’t get the ball all the
time. But, she’s already a good leader.”
Cliff Mehrtens is a Charlotte-based writer
with a background covering sports.
16 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | 49ers notebook
49er Athletes
Continue Tradition
of Academic Success
UNC Charlotte senior Corey Nagy, of men’s
golf, and Hailey Beam, of women’s soccer, were
named the Atlantic 10 (A-10) 2010 Male and
Female Scholar-Athletes of the Year in a vote by
the league’s athletics directors. This marks just the
fourth time in league history, and the first since
2001-02, that students from the same institution
have won both of the A-10 Scholar-Athlete of the
Year Awards. The two honors give Charlotte five
award winners in just five years of participation
in the league.
“I have been so proud of the accomplishments
of our student athletes both in the classroom
and on the courts and fields,” said Director of
Athletics Judy Rose. “The fact that Charlotte
student athletes have received the A-10 Scholar-
Athlete Award five times is incredible. It is even
more exciting to garner the award for both the
male and female student athletes in the same
year. It speaks volumes for the emphasis that we
place on both academics and athletics.”
Nagy and Beam are part of a long tradition of
academically successful 49er athletes.
In fact, UNC Charlotte student athletes
have received half of the A-10 athlete of the year
awards in the past five years. Only Saint Louis
comes close, with two awards.
In those same five years the 49ers have won
25 individual sport Student-Athlete of the Year
awards, including five this year; nearly double the
amount of the next closest institution.
This year, both Nagy and Beam won for
their respective sports, while Darius Law
won the Men’s Indoor and Men’s Outdoor
Track and Field awards and Adam Gross won
the Men’s Soccer Award. The 49ers have won
the A-10 Golf Student-Athlete of the Year
Award in all five seasons in the league.
In addition, Law became the second
49er in six years to win the Arthur Ashe
National Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Award. Track star Sharonda Johnson won
the same award in 2005. Gross, meanwhile
received an A-10 Post-Graduate Scholarship.
Gross, Law, Beam and Nagy were all named
ESPN The Magazine Academic all-Americans
this past season.
Al-Time A-10 Scholar-Athlete
of the Year Awards
• 2010: Corey Nagy, male (golf ); Hailey
Beam, female (soccer)
• 2008: Lindsey Ozimek, female (soccer)
• 2007: Jane Daniels, female (cross country;
track and field)
• 2006: Mike Ambrose, male (baseball)
2009-10 A-10 Sport
Student-Athlete of
the Year Awards
• Men’s Soccer: Adam Gross
• Women’s Soccer: Hailey Beam
• Men’s Indoor Track
and Field: Darius Law
• Men’s Golf: Corey Nagy
• Men’s Outdoor Track
and Field: Darius Law
Soccer, Volleyball, Cross
country headline fall sports
The 49ers men’s and women’s soccer teams,
who were both nationally-ranked in 2009,
headline the 49ers fall sports programming.
The men’s soccer team earned the program’s first
NCAA Tournament berth since 1997 while the
women were A-10 runners-up with an unbeaten
9-0-2 record in league play. Charlotte will host
the 2010 A-10 Men’s Soccer Championship on
campus at Transamerica Field.
The men are led by a pair of gifted strikers,
Evan James and Andres Cuero. James was
second on the team with seven goals while
Cuero topped the team with seven assists.
Head coach Jeremy Gunn also has a strong
defense that includes key returnees Isaac
Cowles and Charles Rodriguez. The 49ers
toppled third-ranked Wake Forest last season
and went 11-3-6 overall and 5-2-2 in A-10
play to return to the NCAA Tournament for
the first time in over a decade.
The women return two-time A-10
Offensive Player of the Year Whitney
Weinraub. Weinraub led the Atlantic 10 in
goals (13), points (32) and game-winning
tallies (6) for a high-powered 49ers team that
was among the nation’s leader in scoring. In
three years, Weinraub has scored 31 goals and
is just five shy of the 49ers all-time record of
36. Weinraub will be joined by the likes of
preseason all-conference choices Oni Bernard,
Sam Huecker and Megan Minnix. Former
Corey Nagy Andres Cuero returns for the
49ers men’s soccer team.
Hailey Beam
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 17
49ers men’s player John Cullen will guide the
team after posting an impressive 16-3-2 mark
in 2009.
The 49ers volleyball team, under head
coach Chris Redding, is picked to finish
sixth in the Atlantic 10. The 49ers return a
powerful attack led by the return of its top
three attackers. Sophomores Bianca Rouse
and Jenna Litoborski were 1-2 in total kills
for the 49ers as freshmen while senior Kat
Hicks joined them with over 200 kills, as
well. That trio, along with returning setter
Sheri Davis, look to spark a 49ers team that
attracted over 600 fans for each of its home
contests on its way to an average of over 900
per match.
In cross country, senior all-America
distance runner Amanda Goetschius leads
the 49ers women as they race for the A-10
title. Charlotte was the A-10 runner-up
last year, and top runners Goetschius, who
was the A-10 individual runner-up, Keara
Thomas, Laura McCary, Kristin Mitchell
and Sarah Willingham all return. The men’s
side, which loses top guns Adu Dentamo and
Chase Eckard, looks to pair the experience of
seniors like Aaron Kauffman, Dakota Lowery
and Javan Lapp with the youth of impressive
sophomores like Ross Roberson, Will Taylor,
Daniel Stiefvater and Daweet Dagnachew.
Soccer home games will be played at
Transamerica Field; volleyball home matches
are at Halton Arena. For complete schedule
information go to www.charlotte49ers.com.
| UNC CHARLOTTE
of Trustees approved the recommendation
without opposition. Dec. 11, 2009, the
Board unanimously approved the funding
plan. Feb. 12, 2010, the University of North
Carolina Board of Governors unanimously
approved the funding plan. During the
2010 summer legislative session, the Senate
Finance Committee offered its unanimous
vote (June 9) as did the Senate floor (June
10). The House Finance Committee added
its approval (June 24) and the House voiced
its approval, July 7. Gov. Bev Purdue signed
the bill in early August.
“We have many people to thank,” Dubois
added, “including Mac Everett and the
members of the public advisory committee
which supported football at Charlotte,
to the members of the Board of Trustees,
Board of Governors, and General Assembly
who gave it their careful consideration
and ultimate approval. Most of all, we
acknowledge our hard-working staff and
our loyal students who have agreed to carry
the financial burden. This is a great time
to be a Niner. We hope that the entire
community will make us their ‘home team’
on Saturdays.”
The 49ers raised over $5.8 million with
the sale of 49ers Seat Licenses (FSLs) and
capital gifts over the next year, setting
the table for a funding plan that has now
received approval from the University Board
of Trustees, the university system Board of
Governors and the state legislature.
“We have said all along that this is not
just about the 49ers athletic department,”
noted Rose. “It’s about the University, the
city and the region. So many people have
recognized the potential and possibilities
and stepped forward in support. This is
their success.”
The 49ers continue to sell FSL’s, which
are required to guarantee a seat to 49ers
football games.
“We sold over 3,200 FSL’s during a
time when folks still weren’t sure we were
going to field a team,” Rose said. “We
hadn’t received all the necessary approvals.
Now, fans can purchase those FSLs with
the knowledge that yes, the 49ers will play
football in 2013.”
Continued from p. 3
WHAT’S TO COME
n Spring 2011: Hiring of Head Coach/Coaching Staff
n May 2011: Breaking Ground on Charlotte 49ers Football Facility,
including football field house and 15,000 seat football stadium.
n February 2012: 2012-13 Recruiting Class Signing
n Summer 2012: Charlotte 49ers Football Field House Opens
n Fall 2012: First Football Class Enrolls
n Fall 2012: Announce 2013 Football Schedule
n December 2012: 2013-14 Mid-Year Junior College
Transfer Signing
n February 2013: 2013-14 Recruiting Class Signing
n Spring 2013: Spring Football for the 49ers
n FIRST GAME: Aug. 31, 2013
The volleyball team returns a powerful lineup
led by the return of its top three attackers.
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
“Archeology
bears witness to
the past: That
once upon a time,
children roamed
these overgrown
alleys, and that
there were shouts
of joy and sorrow
in the everyday
cycle of life.”
— Akinwumi Ogundiran
Unearthing
Empire By Lisa A. Patterson
an
18 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 19
feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
UNC Charlotte Chair and Professor
of Africana Studies Akinwumi Ogundiran
is digging deeper into an important part
of Africa’s past to unearth the origins of
an empire whose influence can be felt
today in the language and cultural
practices of people from Brazil, to
Nigeria to South Carolina.
According to Ogundiran, empire means
political control exercised by one organized
political unit over another unit separate
from and alien to it. Many factors enter
into empire, but the essential core is
political: The possession of final authority
by one entity over the vital political
decisions of another.
The Egyptian Empire is among the most
well-known African empires, but it was
the Oyo Empire, founded by the Yoruba
people in the 15th Century, that captured
Ogundiran’s imagination.
“What is fascinating is growing up in
Nigeria I read about the Oyo Empire, but
years later I realized that there’s a big gap
in the empire’s historiography,” Ogundiran
said. “We don’t know how the empire
began. Historians have focused on the
period when it was richest.”
Historians contend that warriors were
the founders of the empire, but according
to Ogundiran, warriors don’t build empires.
This assertion led Ogundiran to ask why
and how the empire spread from a small
city state and into one of the largest political
units in West Africa, south of the Sahara.
Ogundiran’s question morphed into
a multi-year, ongoing investigation of
various facets of Oyo life. Drawing
from anthropology, archeology and
“When we study empires we tend
to study the metropolises. To
understand how an empire developed,
you have to go to the peripheries.”
Professor Akinwumi Ogundiran is studying
how the Oyo Empire developed as the
largest political entity in Atlantic Africa,
south of the Niger River. Here he holds an
ivory hair comb, one of the many crafts
produced by the Empire’s inhabitants.
20 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
historiography, Ogundiran has peeled back
layers of misconception about the empire
and its origins, revealing a complex polity
with fully developed and firmly entrenched
civic, cultural and economic structures.
From 2002 to 2007, Ogundiran’s research
focused on the role of military men in
imperial expansion.
“By mapping the direction of the
expansion between 1580 and the 1830s,
I realized that the reason military actions
were continued was to control trade routes.
When the Europeans arrived on the coast of
West Africa they wanted to trade, and the
purpose of the empire’s expansion was to
secure trading routes that led to the coast,”
Ogundiran said.
The Oyo were 200 miles inland and began to
expand outward in order to protect traders from
attack. A majority of the traders were women.
“Women were engaging in all kinds of
crafts, including cloth weaving and jewelry
making, so I began to look at the domestic
level of production in this pre-industrial
society,” Ogundiran said. “Women were
traveling 50-plus miles to trade – they
contributed a great deal to the economy.”
Ogundiran’s current study focuses
on one strategy of empire formation –
colonization. He believes that provinces
or frontiers of empires, rather than
imperial capitals, hold the key to
understanding the dynamics of
empire formation.
“Women were traveling 50-plus
miles to trade ­—
they contributed
a great deal to the economy.”
“When we study empires we tend
to study the capitals (metropolises). To
understand how an empire developed,
you have to go to the peripheries,”
Ogundiran explained. “The answers lie
in the peripheries.”
Historical sources, consisting of oral
interviews and published/unpublished local
accounts, led Ogundiran to focus on the
Upper Osun area of central Yorubaland.
Ogundiran began an excavation of
Ede-Ile, likely the first successful colony
established by the Oyo to advance their
imperial ambitions.
His team is currently working to
determine the nature of the Oyo’s intrusion
into central Yorubaland and how the Oyo
metropolis maintained its presence in a
foreign (and presumably hostile) territory.
“Much recent scholarship has focused
on colonial encounters between the
colonizers and the local populace. My
study emphasizes the cultural and political
relationship between colonists and the
metropolis/homeland,” Ogundiran said.
Now a landscape overtaken by secondary
forest and wild animals, Ede-Ile was once
a prosperous town ringed by Baobab trees
and bustling with commerce.
Ogundiran holds an ivory hair pin dating to the 16th Century. The pin was among an
assortment of craft objects unearthed during an archeological dig in modern Nigeria.
Ogundiran uses leading-edge technology in his
laboratory to determine the age of this ivory
hair pin, a relic of the Oyo Empire.
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 21
feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
Though the Oyo Empire protected its
citizens from enslavement, it did not spare
those outside of the empire. Conquered
peoples were made to supply a proscribed
number of slaves to be sold on the coast
every year.
When Britain outlawed the slave trade
in the 1820s, the decision touched off an
economic crisis in the empire. At the same
time, political unrest in the metropolis and
an Islamic uprising in the north contributed
to the eventual collapse of the empire.
“Over a period of 300 years, 500,000
Yoruba people were enslaved. As soon as the
empire collapsed the protections the citizens
enjoyed were no longer available; in just a
50-year period, from 1800 to 1850, half a
million Yoruba people were enslaved and
brought to the United States, Brazil and
Cuba,” Ogundiran said.
These late arrivals brought their rich
heritage and traditions to the Americas.
Many of which are still alive today in the
lyrics of Brazilian pop music, in the practice
of Santeria and even in the governance of
Oyotunji (“Oyo Rises Again”), a village
located in South Carolina. The Oyo Empire
collapsed, but its culture was transplanted to
the New World.
With funding from the National
Science Foundation-Missouri Research
Reactor Center, National Endowment for the
Humanities, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation
for Anthropological Research, Ogundiran
traveled to Africa this summer to conduct the
next phase in his research.
Ogundiran and his team currently
are studying the impact of Oyo imperial
expansion on the environment, focusing on
how activities such as hunting and fishing
affected the ecosystem. They also will
extend their examination of crafts work and
specialization of production.
The results of Ogundiran’s investigations
not only enrich understanding of the
formation of an African Empire during the
Early Modern period, but also reveal the
cultural background of the African Diaspora
peoples in the Americas — from Cuba to
Brazil to Trinidad to Miami to Charlotte.
Ogundiran collaborates with students and
institutions in Nigeria, including the National
Commission for Museums and Monuments,
but hopes to extend the opportunity to
participate in fieldwork in Africa and laboratory
analysis on campus to UNC Charlotte students.
However, he warns, you can’t be afraid of snakes,
or very big bugs, if you’re going to dig deep into
the lives of traders, kings and cavalry men.
Lisa A. Patterson is senior writer
in the Office of Public Relations.
The first excavations at Ede-Ile were carried
out in four locations. All the excavated units
show that there was no prior settlement or
occupation before the Oyo colonists settled on
the site that later became Ede-Ile.
While evidence of widely varied forms of
commerce are visible at Ede-Ile, the colony
might have served another distinct purpose –
to protect Oyo citizens from the slave trade.
“Either you joined the slave trade or
you were destroyed by it,” Ogundiran said.
“As soon as it was established it was almost
impossible for African nations to get out of it.
The dilemma became what to do with it.”
The empire’s expansion proved to be a
double-edged sword. By expanding to the
coast the empire was better able to protect
the vast majority of its citizens. Conversely,
profits from trade, including the slave trade,
were necessary to purchase horses for the Oyo
cavalry, which was crucial to the empire’s
imperial ambitions.
“The European empires grew out of feudal
systems. The Oyo Empire wasn’t feudal —
every child born in the empire had the right to
own and farm land, so the state was financed
through commerce,” Ogundiran said. “This
structure made it necessary to engage in more
and more trade. Financing for the military and
a whole retinue of government functions came
from the slave trade.”
Domestic production was essential to economic success for pre-industrial societies. Women drove much of this production and actively participated in
trade. Pictured here are craft objects including a brass bangle, ivory jewelries, beads and spindle whorls.
22 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | center stage
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 23
Raise the
Green Flag
On Sept. 18, 2008, Chancellor Philip L.
Dubois recommended to the Board
of Trustees that UNC Charlotte
start an NCAA football program.
That recommendation came after a
21-month study by a football feasibility
committee led by local leaders. That
decision gave rise to spontaneous
celebrations and rallies like the one
pictured here at the Belk Tower. In
November of 2008, the trustees voted
to accept that recommendation. But
the quest for 49er football was far from
complete. The Athletics department
developed and launched a fundraising
and seat license marketing plan In
January 2009; a fundraising capital
campaign commenced in February
2009 amidst a devastating national,
state and local recession. In December
2009 the trustees approved a final
financing plan to establish the football
program and in February of this year
the University of North Carolina Board
of Governors approved that plan.
Because the plan included issuing debt,
it had to be approved by the General
Assembly, and the bill of which it was
part needed to be signed by Gov. Bev
Perdue. The debt was approved in
July, and in early August, with the
governor’s signature, 49er football was
finally approved. The team will take the
field in 2013. Go ‘Niners!
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
By Lisa A. Patterson
Tell It Like It Was
Students, stories and a small South Carolina town
University Honors Program students greet Miss
Eugenia Deas as she joins them for dinner and
the official launch of the oral history project.
of the town, and to fulfill a community
service requirement mandated by the UNC
Charlotte University Honors Program.
With funding from private donations,
the students were transported to
McClellanville, housed and fed for the
weekend. Upon arrival, the students toured
town and enjoyed dinner with the residents.
Arnold said the dinner served to move
many of the students from reticence about
the project to excitement.
The next day, the students paired off in
teams of two and conducted the interviews.
After collecting the material the students
returned to campus where they transcribed
the interviews and are compiling them as a
collection to be sent to The Village Museum
at McClellanville.
Though the students received
interviewing and equipment training from
“This big book is the autobiography
of an illiterate man.” So begins All God’s
Dangers, the award-winning autobiography
by Theodore Rosengarten, a MacArthur
Genius Grant recipient and long-time
resident of McClellanville, South Carolina.
Rosengarten is among an eclectic mix
of artisans, laborers, writers and retirees
who call the town of McClellanville home.
Rosengarten and 14 of his neighbors added
“interviewee” to their resumes, as they
relayed stories about their lives, and the
history of their town, to a group of UNC
Charlotte honors students.
The 14 students, their instructor,
Robert Arnold, and University Honors
Program (UHP) Director Connie Rothwell,
descended on the tiny fishing village
(population 400) as part of a project
designed to capture the rich oral history
24 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 25
feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
Assistant University Librarian for Special
Collections Katie McCormick, some
harbored fears of being met with silence
by the interviewees. It turns out their fears
were unfounded.
“The problem we had was getting people
to stop talking so the students could get to
the next interview,” Arnold said.
Sam Watson, UNC Charlotte professor
emeritus of English, helped coordinate
the project. A resident of McClellanville,
Watson said, “Here, once people get
cranked up they don’t want to shut up.”
In Their Own Words
“We often assume that what is of educational importance is
either in books or somewhere other than where we are,” said
Professor Emeritus Sam Watson, who played an integral role
in coordinating the McClellanville oral history project for UNC
Charlotte honors students. He believes the project encouraged
students to view their own lives and experiences as valuable
and instructive.
After collecting oral histories from 15 individuals, the students
transcribed the interviews, created audio CDs and multi-media
DVDs, and wrote reflective essays about their experiences. Below
are excerpts from the student essays.
Student: Hugh Quach
Interviewee: Dr. Bonner
After my experience at McClellanville, I understood why I had to be present for
this project to work. I was simply there to listen to these people talk…I assumed
the role of guide for them and a comfort.
History tends to repeat itself, so the role of those who have shared their
stories with me is to attempt to pass on messages about successes and failures
they may have experienced to the future citizens of McClellanville.
Student: Chelsea Kuyath
Interviewee: Mrs. Lloyd McClellan
Mrs. McClellan was born in McClellanville and has lived there almost ever
since. Her colorful stories told of an adventurous youth during WWII and a lively
adulthood in a changing society. She shared tales such as the time she went
out the second story window to paint her house and ended up dangling by her
security rope screaming for help, or when she spent her embalming money on
Bojangles’ biscuits and antiques on a road trip up to Charlotte.
From the memories Mrs. McClellan shared with us, an image of McClellanville
began to form. The Village had been as pretty as a postcard before, but through
Mrs. McClellan’s eyes, it became a vibrant, dynamic place full of character
and history.
Student: Conor Dugan
Interviewee: Bud Hill
The first thing I noticed about the people of McClellanville
is that every one of them is an excellent story teller.
Oral history is McClellanville’s backbone, its
legacy being kept alive by citizens spending
time together and sharing memories, which
seems to be what makes the place so unique.
These people put great importance on
spending time with others, getting to know
them, talking to them and becoming close.
For more information about the UNC
Charlotte University Honors Program,
please visit www.uhonors.uncc.edu
Continued on p. 36
Mrs. Lloyd McClellan, pictured here, regaled
student Chelsea Kuyath with tales of her
adventurous youth in McClellanville, a tiny
fishing village on the South Carolina coast.
Students from the UNC Charlotte University
Honors Program gathered with McClellanville
residents to learn more about the village as
part of a project to collect oral histories.
26 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | stake your claim prof i le
Bringing
History to Life
Latta Plantation a perfect fit for Nicole Glinski Cheslak
By Rhiannon Bowman
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 27
stake your claim prof i le | UNC CHARLOTTE
In February of this year, UNC Charlotte
alumna, Nicole Glinski Cheslak (’06)
landed her dream job: Executive Director
for Latta Plantation in Huntersville. But she
hasn’t left her alma mater behind — she still
checks in with her favorite history teacher
from time to time with questions about
Charlotte’s pre-Civil War history.
Since childhood, Cheslak has had a
passion for history. Her parents encouraged
her through trips to historical sites across
the United States. It wasn’t until she was
well into her academic career, however, that
she accepted history as her major.
A native of Ohio, she first visited
Charlotte when she was eight years old. She
says she remembers thinking, “I’m going
to live here one day.” When the time came
to choose a college,
UNC Charlotte was
on top of her list.
“It’s a big school,”
she said, “but it has a
small feel.”
Assistant Professor
Dan DuPre helped
crystallize that
emotion. While
Cheslak tried out
several other majors, she says she kept
coming back to his history classes, most
of which concentrate on the timeframe
between colonization and the Civil War.
Finally, she gave in and became a history
major. “You can’t fight your love,” she said.
Recalling her time as a student, she said
she loved how DuPre allows his classes to
sit in a circle and, instead of giving lectures
every class, he encourages his students to
discuss their assignments. “You had to be
prepared,” Cheslak said of his classes.
“She stood out,” DuPre said, adding
that he remembers how Cheslak especially
enjoyed biographical approaches to
history. “I’m pleased that she’s using what
she’s learned at UNC Charlotte in her
professional life,” he said, adding that Latta
Plantation is a “perfect fit” for her.
Cheslak couldn’t agree more. Shortly
after graduation, she began looking around
for work. The first stop on her job hunt
was Latta Plantation’s Web site (www.
lattaplantation.org). Within 30 minutes
of submitting her resume she landed an
interview. By March 2007, she began
working part-time. By August of the
same year, she was the manager of Visitor
Services. On Feb. 10, 2010, she became the
Executive Director.
The job includes several perks, according
to Cheslak. She says Latta’s “amazing
volunteers” make her job easy. So do her co-workers.
“We’ve all been here long enough,
and love the site so much, that we all do our
part,” she said. One perk recent visitors may
have noticed involves one of her five pets.
Cleopatra Latta, a Chihuahua puppy, has
become the plantation’s official greeter.
Unfortunately, the job also has its trials
and tribulations. The plantation is a non-profit
organization located within a county
park. Like so many other county amenities,
the organization has faced severe – nearly 50
percent – budget cuts
in recent months.
Fortunately, Cheslak
said, people continue
to attend the site’s
events. “That’s what
keeps us going,”
she said. “We’re
operating at the bare
minimum.”
During her short
tenure, she’s already had to cut expenses
and events and the site has had to cut its
hours. Once open seven days a week, it now
closes on Mondays. While Cheslak fears
layoffs may be around the corner, she is not
willing to sit around and wait for the sky to
fall. Instead, she’s thinking of creative new
fundraising ideas and seeking additional
grant opportunities. She also relies heavily
on volunteers.
For her, it’s important to avoid getting
snagged by the budget crisis so she can stay
focused on the organization’s goal to bring
history to life. “When you come out here,”
she said, “you experience history. It’s so
nice for the kids – they can’t learn it all
in school.”
Today, she and her husband still live
near campus where he is a mechanical
engineering student. She plans to return to
UNC Charlotte for graduate school after he
graduates with his bachelor’s degree.
Rhiannon Bowman (’08) is a freelance
writer based in Charlotte and a frequent
contributor to UNC Charlotte.
Cheslak is
seeking new
fundraising
ideas and grant
opportunities.
28 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
By Phillip Brown
UNC Charlotte Model United Nations
(U.N.), celebrating its 30th year on campus,
excels in helping undergraduates to better
understand the interconnectedness of the
world’s many regions and cultures. This
year’s efforts to search for solutions to global
problems resulted in a record 41 awards
at regional, national and international
competitions.
“We come together to discuss ideas
centered on international cooperation,
global development and issues impacting
the advancement of a global society,”
said Matt Smither, 2009-10 Model U.N.
president. “But beyond talking about the
issues, we want to talk about solutions –
how do we provide clean water and stop the
spread of HIV/AIDS globally?”
Model United Nations combines the
principles of the U.N. – collaboration,
compromise, diplomacy and justice
The Big Picture
Model U.N. explores issues beyond our borders
The 30 members of UNC Charlotte’s award-winning
Model United Nations (U.N.) club have
spent countless hours working together to
solve practical and theoretical global problems.
The club has helped launch and sustain Model
U.N. programs at other universities and high
schools in the region.
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 29
feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
– with the acquisition of important
skills for virtually any career – public
speaking, writing, intensive research, time
management and the ability to work with
others from diverse backgrounds. Students
attend conferences as delegates representing
a particular nation, its policies, programs
and government.
Beyond the skills that students learn,
they become aware of the world beyond
our borders, stated Cindy Combs, UNC
Charlotte professor of political science and
Model U.N. faculty advisor. “As global
citizens, they discover the reasons why the
world matters to us here. They generate an
interest in the world and the desire to travel
and make a difference.”
While conferences are the main focus
of the Model U.N. program, the bulk of
the preparation occurs before students
attend an event. Model U.N. relies upon its
members to be ready for conferences. The
work begins at the start of the fall semester
as the club determines which countries it
will represent in the Southern Regional
Model United Nations conference, held in
November. During the spring, Model U.N.
members can enroll in a three-hour senior
seminar for academic credit and continue
preparations for national conferences and
the international Harvard World Model
United Nations – considered the Olympics
of Model U.N. competitions.
According to Combs, this year’s success
can be attributed to the dedication of its
30 members and the leadership team of
Smither and club vice president Jay Patel.
“The members met twice a week, but
Matt and Jay got together several times
each week to plan,” Combs said. “They
invested a great deal of time with students
individually. They encouraged, mentored
and empowered members to feel like they
could manage the tasks. Students felt they
could handle the workload and knew their
peers had confidence in their ability to
complete their projects. In my 21 years of
involvement with Model U.N., I’ve never
seen leadership like this.”
Everything Model U.N. does is through
the students; we train each other, Smither
noted, adding Model U.N. is student-led,
student-organized and student-funded.
Besides various fund-raising events, the
club receives support through corporate
donations and area international groups.
In addition to attending four conferences
this past academic year, UNC Charlotte
Model United Nations hosted its 21st
annual College Carolina’s Conference
to teach delegate skills to participating
university students from across the country.
Throughout its inception, the club has
helped launch and sustain Model U.N.
programs at other state universities and
high schools in the greater Charlotte
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
metropolitan region; this year, two high
schools (one in Hickory, the other,
Charlotte) joined a growing roster of
programs supported by UNC Charlotte
Model U.N..
For the first time, the group is moving
beyond the theoretical to gain first-hand
experience in being part of the global
community. In July, members traveled
to Haiti, a nation still recovering from a
devastating earthquake.
“We had great success in recognition at
conferences, traveled to exciting locations
and served as ambassadors for UNC
Charlotte and the Charlotte community,
but we had not affected change in our
global community,” said Smither. Working
with Mercy League International, the club
completed an educational and construction
project in July.
Model U.N. members come from diverse
cultural backgrounds. Because of the many
hours they spend together in preparation,
members become as close as a family, which
has resulted in a strong alumni base for
networking and support.
Moving forward, the concern for the
organization, like any club, is how to
sustain and build upon the tradition of
excellence for which UNC Charlotte Model
U.N. has become synonymous.
“Model U.N. is hunger; it only exists for
the will to want more. Entering the year,
we looked at our record, and said, ‘We’ve
got the best award record of any club at this
school, is that enough?” Smither remarked.
“We’re not satisfied by the status quo. We’re
looking for new universities to sponsor
and new high schools to bring in. We want
to continue to improve the conferences
that we host. The addition of the social
venture program (trip to Haiti) gives us
new direction. We don’t want to just speak
and write about issues and solutions in
conference; we want to be the people on
the ground, making those changes and
achieving tangible results.”
In the quest to create citizens of the
world, Model U.N. is delivering. Of the
eight Model U.N. seniors who graduated,
five are pursing international opportunities.
Smither, a Mount Pleasant native and
recent graduate with a bachelor’s degree
in history and political science, intends
to spend the next year working abroad
teaching English, either in Korea or China,
before returning to pursue a master’s degree
in diplomacy and peace studies.
“After being involved with Model U.N.
and traveling to conferences nationally and
internationally, it is exciting to see these
students want to get a better feel for culture
and language studies,” said Combs. “As the
Model U.N. academic advisor, that’s what
you’re hoping for.”
Phillip Brown is internal communications
manager in the Office of Public Relations.
In the quest to create citizens of
the world, the Model U.N. is delivering.
Of the eight Model U.N. seniors
who graduated, five are pursuing
international opportunities.
30 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 31
stake your claim prof i le | UNC CHARLOTTE
“Working at the YMCA opened my eyes
to many poverty situations. I’ve also worked
with Charlotte Rescue Mission, Habitat for
Humanity, and the local food bank. And I have
a lot of friends who are freegans,” she said. “I set
up this project to raise poverty awareness in a
way not a lot of people do.”
She elected to dumpster dive for
a month at minimum and has been
chronicling the experience at
www.thefrugaldumsterdiver.wordpress.com
Because of the economic recession,
non-profit organizations that deliver essential
services to Charlotte’s more than 5,000
homeless, 3,000 of whom are children, and
scores more people who comprise the region’s
working poor, have suffered. Donations to
local food pantries are flagging.
“Most people don’t like to think about
trash, and specifically, discarded food,” Tokay
said. “On average, Americans throw away
200,000 tons of edible food daily. This means
that while people around the world struggle
with daily hunger, we are throwing out
perfectly good food.”
Tokay wanted to see just how much food is
discarded by grocery stores alone in the hope of
ultimately changing the situation. It didn’t take
long for her to conclude that far too many of
the items thrown away could instead be utilized
by food pantries and other organizations
committed to eliminating hunger and poverty.
“Stores throw away loaves of bread on its
expiration date,” she said. “One day I counted
27 loaves of bread in the dumpster.”
She explained that liability issues often get
in the way of food going from the store to the
food pantry and admitted that this might be
the biggest hurdle to implementing programs
that could help cut down on waste and feed
people in need.
“I’ve done some research on expiration dates
and have found that ‘used by, sell by and best
before’ are just unregulated dates that grocery
stores put on food as guidelines for perishable
items,” Tokay noted. “In my recent food
discoveries I have found that a lot of items are
thrown out the day they expire, or in fact several
days before the stamped package date.”
Tokay plans to go back to her “normal”
life after the experiment but said she will
supplement her grocery shopping with
dumpster diving.
However for some, dumpster diving is
among the best of very few options. Tokay
heard a first-hand account of life on the street
when she encountered a man in his late 20s,
wearing a dress shirt and khaki pants, digging
through “her” dumpster. She struck up a
conversation with him and learned that his
name was Mike and he had been homeless for
eight years. He offered to share his best finds
with Tokay, discussed the judgments people
make about his lifestyle, and told her about
the spots he frequents. He gets everything he
needs to live from dumpsters — food and
even electronic devices. He was hoping that
the nearby sporting goods store would throw
out a tent some time, as a tent would make an
excellent shelter.
“You wouldn’t know Mike was homeless if
you encountered him on the street – his nice
clothes make him look like any other person,”
Tokay said.
The wealthiest nation in the world,
the United States houses five percent of
the world’s population and consumes 25
percent of the Earth’s resources. On the
flip side, more than 1.5 million people in
the United States live on the streets or in
shelters, according to conservative estimates.
To eradicate poverty and waste on a global
scale, Tokay believes change must come one
community, one county at a time.
“It’s so easy to give that person on the
side of the road a couple dollars and move
on with life,” Tokay said. “I grew up without
ever wondering about where my next meal
would come from, like most people I know.
But many people, even in Charlotte, don’t
have the luxury of taking food and shelter
for granted.”
Lisa A. Patterson is senior writer
in the Office of Public Relations.
UNC Charlotte honors program student Kaitlyn Tokay is raising awareness of homelessness and
hunger in a unique way – she is blogging about her experience as a “dumpster diver.”
Continued from p. 7
32 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
When Harvey Murphy visited Charlotte
College in 1965, he wasn’t impressed. At the
time, the College was vying to become part
of the UNC system. “There is no way the
state of North Carolina will grant university
status to this college,” thought Murphy.
Then he met UNC Charlotte founder Dr.
Bonnie Cone.
Cone learned about Murphy through
Jim Matthews, a biology professor at UNC
Charlotte. The College, soon to become a
University, was in need of a health and physical
education program and Cone was recruiting.
It didn’t take her very long to convince
Murphy that he needed to take on the
job (Cone remains legendary for her
persuasiveness and her attitude of not
accepting no for an answer).
“Within 20 minutes I was sharing my
ideas about how to make Charlotte College
into a first class university,” Murphy
remembers. “The opportunity to help build
a university from the beginning was just
too good to pass up and Dr. Cone — Miss
Bonnie — was a remarkable woman.”
There was only one more thing that
Cone needed: An “interim” men’s basketball
coach. So it began.
Murphy joined Charlotte College in the
fall of 1965 as the Athletic Director and
men’s basketball coach. He was charged
with developing all aspects of campus
recreational, athletic and health and physical
education efforts. Charlotte College became
The University of North Carolina at
Charlotte that year.
There were no athletic facilities or
university housing at the time. The
basketball team practiced in area elementary
schools and played games in high school
gyms. “The showers were made for little
people and the boys towered over the
lockers,” Murphy said. The players drove
themselves to practices and games. When
they couldn’t find a ride, Murphy picked
them up and drove them home, which
he did with regularity. Murphy and the
team manager had to substitute at times
and scrimmage with the team. “Those
young men gave a lot and they inspired
me.” The 49ers won the Dixie Conference
championships in 1969 and 1970.
“We also integrated the team while I
was coach. We recruited the first African
American player, T. J. Reddy, who played
for a year. I received some phone calls about
that,” said Murphy.
Murphy blazed new trails while building
the physical education department. He
decided that men and women should
participate together in the same physical
education classes. It was a very progressive
notion at the time. “It provided economical
savings as well,” he said. He is particularly
UNC CHARLOTTE | stake your claim prof i le
Visionary teacher,
researcher, coach
Endowment honors Harvey Murphy
By Buffie Stephens “The opportunity to help build a
university was just too good to pass
up and Dr. Cone – Miss Bonnie – was
a remarkable woman.”
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 33
stake your claim prof i le | UNC CHARLOTTE
proud of the fact that in 1975, he helped
hire current Athletics Director Judy Rose
as women’s basketball and tennis coach and
physical education teacher.
He also established the now robust
intramural program at UNC Charlotte.
“We began a women’s intramural football
team and played power puff football; not so
politically correct these days.”
Murphy is lauded for his vision and
approach to health and physical education.
He was a pioneer who helped establish
the fact that exercise is indeed healthy and
essential to a long life-span. During his 31
years at UNC Charlotte, the Department of
Health and Physical Education transformed
into the Department of Kinesiology in the
College of Health and Human Services.
“I was allowed freedom to run my
department and the camaraderie we had
among us was palpable. We helped faculty
get the resources they needed to do good
research,” said Murphy. “Mike Turner, Tim
Lightfoot, Mitch Cordova, and Linda Berne
have done tremendous applied research in the
area of exercise physiology, sports medicine
and health promotion. That caliber of faculty
has helped to establish UNC Charlotte as a
major research university.”
Murphy himself has made enormous
contributions to the health and well-being
of Charlotte and the region. He helped
to establish the first cardiac rehabilitation
program at what is now Carolinas Medical
Center using a grant from the Heart
Association and the state of North Carolina.
“Physicians at the time were afraid of exercise
therapy after heart attacks,” said Murphy. “We
convinced a few emergency room physicians to
monitor our exercise sessions and they became
more comfortable with the concept.” Murphy
also helped the Charlotte Fire Department
establish a fitness program.
According to Kinesiology Department
Chair Mitch Cordova, “Dr. Murphy was
a true visionary in understanding the
importance of exercise and preventing chronic
diseases such as cardio vascular disease, obesity,
and diabetes, the importance of exercise in
rehabilitating people with these conditions.
He was a leader in organizing some of the
early conferences and workshops within the
profession at the time.”
While at UNC Charlotte, he served on the
YMCA Board of Directors of the Southeast
Region and helped develop training programs
for Y staff and volunteers. He established
certification programs. Murphy visited the
Soviet Union in 1977 to observe Soviet fitness
and sports program for the YMCA.
Growing up in Enterprise, Ala., Murphy
didn’t think he had the resources to attend
college. Murphy played basketball, football
and baseball at Coffee County High School.
Buddy McCollum, the basketball coach
at Troy State Teachers College saw him
play basketball.
“McCollum — we called him Batman
— recruited me and he changed my life
forever. You never know what opportunities
will come to you. I knew I didn’t want
to be a farmer. So many people gave me
opportunities,” said Murphy.
That is the philosophy he has lived by
during his 44 years of teaching. Murphy
has presented opportunity to students
and faculty over the years and did it
intentionally, paying tribute to those who
offered him the same.
As a tribute to Harvey Murphy, the
Department of Kinesiology at UNC
Charlotte honored him this year by
endowing a scholarship in his name. The
Dr. Harvey Murphy Scholarship will benefit
students in the Department of Kinesiology.
UNC Charlotte faculty and staff — past
and present — former students and athletes,
friends and family all have contributed to
the scholarship fund.
“I’m thrilled,” said Murphy. “I must have
left the department in good shape,” he added.
Good shape, indeed.
Buffie Stephens, a UNC Charlotte
alumna, is media relations manager
in the Office of Public Relations.
To establish the Dr. Harvey Murphy
Scholarship in perpetuity, the
Department of Kinesiology continues
to accept donations. Contributions
may be mailed to: College of Health
and Human Services, attn: Heather
Shaughnessy, UNC Charlotte, 9201
University City Boulevard, Charlotte,
NC 28223. For more information,
visit www.health.uncc.edu or
contact Heather Shaughnessy at
704.687.7737 or hshaughn@uncc.edu.
34 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | feature
By Lynn Roberson
UNC Charlotte is keenly focused on
faculty recruitment and advancement, in part
through its cornerstone initiatives supported
by a $2.15 million ADVANCE grant from
the National Science Foundation.
“The grant relates specifically to our
institutional climate for women faculty
in science, technology, engineering and
mathematics, or STEM disciplines,” says
Joan Lorden, provost and vice chancellor for
academic affairs. “However, we are leveraging
the impact throughout the university. Engaging
men and women in creating an equitable
gender climate contributes to a positive
environment for all, including students.”
UNC Charlotte is among a select group
of universities nationwide to have received an
ADVANCE grant, with one year remaining
on its five-year award. While nationwide
studies continue to show challenges in
attracting women to STEM careers in
academia and industry, UNC Charlotte has
shown progress.
Notably, the number of female STEM
faculty promoted and obtaining tenure has
grown 14 percent since the University received
the grant. The number of women in STEM
leadership roles has increased 23 percent.
During the most recent round of promotions
in the Lee College of Engineering, four of
the six faculty members achieving tenure and
promotion to associate professor were women,
in another example.
ADVANCE Influences
Institutional Change
The NSF grant has acted as a catalyst for
sustainable institutional changes at UNC
Charlotte. Collaborators include Academic
Helping Women
Faculty ADVANCE
Grant funds program to nurture STEM faculty
Affairs, Human Resources, the Council on
University Community, the Chancellor’s
Diversity Fund, the Faculty Council, various
colleges, the Center for Professional and Applied
Ethics and others. A leadership team drawn from
various colleges and chaired by Lorden guides
the efforts.
In one important example of systemic
impact, the ADVANCE Future of the
Faculty committee has advocated for policy
improvements with university-wide implications.
“ADVANCE has influenced the
broadening of pathways leading to
promotion and the expansion of rationales
for stopping the tenure clock, or the time
faculty have to achieve tenure,” Lorden
says. “ADVANCE also championed the
need for a faculty ombudsperson, a position
endorsed by the Faculty Council.”
ADVANCE manages the University’s
faculty recruitment training for search
committees, to enable fair, inclusive and
effective searches. In a survey of attendees, 84
percent who responded said they became more
aware of potential bias in the search process.
Workshops include reviews of case studies,
training on cognitive bias in committee
discussions and a review of the potential
impact of job advertisements, including how
they are written and where they are posted.
“We believe it is critical for departments
to think inclusively when conducting
faculty searches,” Lorden says. “We have
reached hundreds of search committee
Mentee Janaka Lewis (left) and mentor Lisa Walker discussed ways to balance demands on faculty’s time.
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 35
feature | UNC CHARLOTTE
members through these workshops, giving
them resources to guide their work and
allowing them to share effective practices.”
ADVANCE Helps Faculty
Grow in their Varied Roles
While much of the work by ADVANCE
is systemic and large-scale, other efforts are
geared toward individual faculty members.
Mentoring and leadership development
opportunities can be key to faculty success,
says ADVANCE Faculty Director Yvette
Huet, who also is a biology professor.
“Attracting diverse faculty is important
for the continued growth of our university,”
Huet says. “We also believe it is essential to
help our new and existing faculty expand
their leadership and their knowledge.”
The mentoring program offers
professional support for tenure-track
faculty, as they move towards promotion
and tenure. One signature program
matches junior faculty members with senior
colleagues who are outside their home units,
as a supplement to the mentoring that also
occurs within a faculty member’s discipline
or program.
ADVANCE also directs peer-mentoring
programs with mid-career faculty, and
senior faculty members from across
the university meet as groups to share
information and support each other,
especially regarding career advancement.
Kim Buch of the psychology department
directly oversees the mid-career mentoring
effort, while Huet coordinates the early
career mentoring.
“Mentors can help new faculty become
socialized to the university culture and to
learn about resources and opportunities,”
Huet says “We think this also enhances
our intellectual community and builds
bridges between colleges and departments.
As our university raises its stature in
interdisciplinary research, the mentoring
efforts can be an efficient and personal way
to grow connections.”
To be successful, mentors and
mentees need to understand each other’s
expectations, say mentor Robin Coger and
her mentee, Xiuxia Du. “You have to be
on the same page as to what the mentee
is hoping to gain from the relationship,”
Coger says. “It’s important to have that
discussion early. Another critical step is
establishing trust.”
Du joined UNC Charlotte’s Department
of Bioinformatics & Genomics as an
assistant professor in 2008. She has found
invaluable the relationships and knowledge
that Coger has amassed and shared, most
recently in Coger’s roles as professor of
Mechanical Engineering and Engineering
Science and director of the Center for
Biomedical Engineering Systems.
“Robin thinks of me not only when we’re
talking in person but also at other times,”
Du says. “She is so gracious. She has sent
me articles and told me about workshops.
She has a broader perspective. She gives
specific solutions when I have issues, but
she also sees deeper.”
Mentor Lisa Slattery Walker, professor
and chair of the Sociology Department, and
her mentee Janaka Lewis, assistant professor
in the English Department, consider ways
to balance teaching and research, as well as
professional and family life.
“How I see my job as a mentor is not
to tell people how to do things but to help
them figure out what works for them,”
Walker says. “The way to be successful as a
faculty member is to figure out what works
for you. I try to see where the person is and
what they need.”
Lewis has applied what she gained from
Walker as well as her department chair and
others in her department. “This has also
helped to supplement the information I was
receiving in my department,” she says. “It
helps the interactions to be very human. I see
what is possible at UNC Charlotte. I haven’t
seen limits. Being here this first year and
being with people who were encouraging me
has extended that view for me.”
Other ADVANCE initiatives include:
Leadership UNC Charlotte, a year-long
seminar series focused on issues rising
leaders face and offered to a group of no
more than 24 selected faculty;
A year-long new faculty orientation
covering issues including plagiarism,
communication and effective use of new
media and information technology;
Facilitated sessions between long-standing
and newly appointed chairs;
Forums when the deans and the provost
discuss promotion criteria with associate
professors;
Informal gatherings of faculty peer
groups, called Focus Energy Fridays;
A women’s speakers series highlighting
practical ideas for growing leadership and
an inclusive climate;
Bonnie Cone Fellowships, awarded
to new and mid-career female faculty in
STEM fields, to help grow their careers and
leadership; and Faculty climate surveys.
Lynn Roberson is project director
for communication in the
ADVANCE Faculty Affairs Office.
ADVANCE offers leadership development courses,
such as this one attended by Ying Lu of the Belk
College of Business (center.)
Mentor Robin Coger and mentee Xiuxia Du say
trust is critical to mentoring partnerships.
36 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | stake your claim prof i le
Since the advent of the printing press the
art of oral story telling has been eclipsed
by the written word. The shift has become
more pronounced in the present digital age,
when it seems people are eager to share even
the most mundane details of their lives in
writing. But oral historical accounts have
distinct value apart from the written record.
Buried in the memories of the
townspeople are the reminiscences of events
and personal interactions that form the
foundation of a community’s collective
identity. Oral histories uncover and preserve
these reminiscences; and sometimes they
even help level the historical playing field.
“You are probably
familiar with the
old adage ‘History
is written by the
winners.’ In a very
basic sense, sharing
one’s story and having
a voice is an exercise
in power; it is a way of
adding one’s version of
events to complement
and compete with the stories of others,”
Arnold said.
Implicit in the act of listening is the
message that everyone has a story to tell,
that no one is anonymous.
“Even in a place like
McClellanville people
become more aware
they have stories when
they encounter people
who haven’t heard the
stories and are eager to
listen. I hear it in the
pride of their voices
when we talk with one
another,” Watson explained.
Rothwell conceived of the project after
visiting Watson.
Rothwell said she often is asked, “Why
McClellanville?” In tandem with the
connection to Watson, and considerations
of student well-being — the town can
be traversed on foot and provides a safe
learning environment — McClellanville
not only is a place where the past has
been preserved, but also is an example of
the nexus between tradition and cultural
transition.
“It’s the sort of place that still has
a distinctive identity,” Watson said.
“McClellanville never really went through
the Civil Rights movement.”
The racial divide is both physical and
metaphorical. Whites live within the literal
boundaries of the village, and the Black
community surrounds the village proper.
Many of the townspeople are descendants
of slaves or plantation owners, and there is
very little contact between the races.
Since her oral history interview with
two African-American honors students,
that has changed for Charlotte Morris, a
McClellanville native now in her 70s. After
the interview, Morris told Watson that she
really enjoyed talking with the students
and that her experience made her think
differently about issues of race.
“The wall between diverse communities
crumbled a bit to create an opening
for dialogue and mutual interest,”
Rothwell said.
Continued dialogue among community
members, Black and White, might be the
only thing standing between McClellanville
and major demographic changes.
Many residents remarked to student
interviewers that their village has become
a popular sanctuary for transplants, mostly
retirees, and tourists. In fact, some residents
Continued from p. 25
The sun sets in the village of McClellanville,
population 400.
McClellanville resident Charlotte Morris is
pictured here in her youth.
Robert Arnold
Connie Rothwell
feel the town is “in danger” of becoming a
resort community.
In recent years, land and property
prices in McClellanville have skyrocketed,
rendering it nearly impossible for the
younger generation of inhabitants to remain
in their hometown.
Whatever changes lie ahead for the town,
the oral history project has helped capture
the character of McClellanville as it was,
and as it is – and with a little moral and
financial support, UNC Charlotte’s UHP
students might return to document the
town’s future.
Lisa A. Patterson is senior writer
in the Office of Public Relations.
The wall
between diverse
communities
crumbled a bit to
create an opening
for dialogue and
mutal interest.
BLEEDS GREEN & GOLD
GOING FOR GOLD AGAIN
IN 2010.
The second annual UNC Charlotte 4.Niner K Scholarship Run/Walk is drawing
near. This is your chance to stake your claim alongside community leaders,
UNC Charlotte alumni, faculty and staff, and friends. Run, walk, or stroll your
way through a family-friendly 4.9k course. All race proceeds go to help fund
need-based scholarships. Sign up and stake your claim for UNC Charlotte today!
RUN/WALK FUNDRAISER FOR NEED-BASED SCHOLARSHIPS
REGISTER
10-23-10 TODAY
Jordan Easton
Last year’s winner & UNC Charlotte Student
38 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
UNC CHARLOTTE | Class Notes
1970s
Michael D. Evans, ’77, was elected chair
of the Fresno County Democratic Central
Committee. Evans previously served two
terms as chair of the Mecklenburg County
Democratic Party. He relocated when his
spouse, Yoshiko Takahashi (M.A. ‘02, Ph.D.
‘08), accepted a teaching position at
California State University, Fresno.
Jill S. Tietjen, PE, ’79, has been elected
by shareholders to Merrick & Company’s
Board of Directors. Tietjen is president
and CEO of Technically Speaking, a
consulting firm that serves the electric
utilities industry as well as organizations
that serve the electric utility industry.
Ward Simmons, ’79, recently completed
the Integrated Study and Practice
Program at the Barre Center for Buddhist
Studies in Massachusetts. He is currently
enrolled in the Community Dharma
Leader program at Spirit Rock Meditation
Center in California.
1980s
Scott Baxter, ’85, has written, directed
and produced the short film, “No
Asians…it’s just not my thing.” The film
has been accepted in 10 film festivals,
won a best actor award at the Boston
International film festival, and will be
shown in September at the Charlotte
Film Festival.
2000s
Cherry Owens, ’03, was recently
promoted to 4K coordinator at Northside
Academy for Early Learning.
Nichole McLaughlin, ’04, received a
Master’s Degree in Human Resources from
Western Carolina University in May 2010.
Trey Carpenter, ’07, married Ashley
Dooley in April 2010.
Nora Carr, ’08, received the 2010 National
School Public Relations Association
(NSPRA) Presidents Award.
Alumni Notes
12th Annual TIAA-Cref Alumni
Golf Outing in support of Dr. Gregory
Davis Need Based Scholarship takes
place on Monday Oct. 11 at Pine Island
Country Club. Come out and golf for
a good cause. The scholarship was
established in 2008 for students
with demonstrated financial need
who posses good academic standing.
Dr. Davis launched several programs
designed to keep students on track
with their college degree goals.
Tuition assistance through scholarship
is an important piece to the puzzle.
“Because I was a first generation
college student, scholarships,
federal and state aid made it
possible for my dream to come
true,” said Davis.
All Greek Reunion – meet us on
the 49 yard line. Renew old
acquaintances and create new
ones at the first annual All Greek
Reunion, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.,
Oct. 23, on Hayes Athletic Fields.
A $1,000 need-based scholarship
will be given to the Greek Organization
with the most paid participants.
See unccharlottealumni.org for
more details.
It is time to share what you’ve been up to
lately and let other alums help you toot your
horn or spread the word on small or large
achievements. We want to hear from you.
Visit the Alumni Affairs Web site at
www.unccharlottealumni.org and tell us what
you’ve been doing.
Or write Alumni Affairs,
UNC Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
What are you doing?
www.UNCC.edu Q310 | UNC CHARLOTTE magazine 39
giving prof i le | UNC CHARLOTTE
The School of Nursing at UNC Charlotte
would like to thank Linet Americas, Inc. for
their generous donation of three state-of-the-art
hospital beds to the School’s Learning
Laboratories. Two Eleganza 3 beds, and
one Eleganza EZ bed, valued at more than
$23,000, were personally delivered by Colin
Bain, president and CEO; Bill Mauze, account
executive and UNC Charlotte alumnus and
their team.
College of Health and Human Services
Dean Karen Schmaling stated that “Integrating
the latest technology in hospital beds in our
Learning Resources Center will greatly enhance
the clinical and simulation training for our
nursing students. We would like to thank Linet
Americas for their generosity and ongoing
partnership with the School of Nursing.”
By incorporating feedback from nursing
faculty and students into the design of their
products, this ongoing partnership will
benefit both the School of Nursing and
Linet Americas, Inc. Founded just outside
of Prague, Czech Republic in 1990, Linet
has quickly become a leading producer of
hospital beds and patient room equipment
throughout the world. Linet’s products –
hospital beds, mattresses, furniture and
other medical care products – are sold in
more than 70 countries on all continents.
Linet products are developed in close
collaboration with healthcare professionals.
Linet Americas is the operating division
of Linet that services the Americas
marketplace. The company is headquartered
in Charlotte and provides localized sales and
service to customers in the region.
The School of Nursing prepares a
diverse nursing workforce to care for the
representative populations of the region,
generates and disseminates knowledge
through research on the life transitions
that affect the health outcomes of diverse
populations, and is a leader in its offering
of quality academic programs and use of
information technology to enhance learning
and to provide greater student access to both
undergraduate and graduate education.
High-tech Beds Enhance
Clinical Training
Nursing students express their appreciation for the new hospital beds donated by Linet Americas, Inc.
UNC CHARLOTTE | bui lding blocks
Three of UNC Charlotte’s legendary benefactors,
(left to right) Oliver Rowe, Addison Reese, and J.
Murrey Atkins welcome a gift into the University’s
coffers. The November 21, 1960, event was a
presentation of a check for $2,500 by Reese,
on behalf of North Carolina National Bank
(NCNB), to the Charlotte College Foundation. The
presentation was made at a luncheon following
the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Charlotte
College campus (on Highway 49). The Rowe Arts
building, Reese administration building and the J.
Murrey Atkins Library are named for these leaders.
Rowe was a University Patron of Excellence and
was president of the Rowe Corp., an enterprise
making products ranging from farm equipment to
synthetic fiber machinery. Reese was a longtime
banker who became chairman and CEO of NCNB
and served as chairman of the site selection
committee that chose today’s campus location.
He also served as chairman of the University’s
board of trustees from 1965-1972. Atkins was
a civic leader in education and was president
of R. S. Dickson & Company, a textiles
brokerage firm.
40 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine | Q310 www.UNCC.edu
theJOYofGIVING
perspect ive | UNC CHARLOTTE
International Staff Intern Embraces UNC Charlotte
By Fatima Tauqir
After working with enthusiasm and
dedication for the last three years as Student
Affairs and Marketing Officer at NUST School
of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Sciences, in Islamabad, Pakistan, I was
highly motivated and engrossed in learning
more about the world and convinced of
the importance of global perspective. My
Director General Dr. Arshad and I contacted
a colleague at UNC Charlotte to arrange for a
professional internship dedicated to examining
and understanding student affairs and higher
education in the United States.
On my home campus in the School of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
I am responsible for the management of the
student affairs office and activities; developing,
coordinating and distributing marketing
materials reflecting School and University
interest and services; overseeing large events
for students including annual Open House,
Alumni Homecoming, Convocations, and
International Culture Day. I also manage the
Alumni Office of the school. As an alumnus of
the school’s program (I graduated in 2006 with
a degree in Information Technology), I bring
specific understanding of the school’s academic
offerings and the individual student experience.
Warmly welcomed by the UNC Charlotte
community, I immediately took advantage of
all the opportunities and within a month had
visited with a staggering number of campus
departments and units including: Student
Union, Student Activities, Career Services,
Counseling Center, Graduate School, Human
Resources, Housing and Residence Life,
Continuing Education, Development and
Alumni Affairs, International Students and
Scholars, and Student Affairs.
My meetings provided a platform from
which I built relationships and strengthened
my understandings of policies, system
and rules. Through this experience and
interaction I have learned a lot. It has
enhanced my ability to think and helped me
in diverse perception of things.
Apart from scheduling myself with all
these departments with my supervisor Marcia
Kiessling every week, I have also been keenly
engaged on the UNC Charlotte campus. I
led a discussion during Graduate Education
Week in March and presented about NUST
and Pakistan to the campus community in
April 16. I took professional development
courses at UNC Continuing Education.
Lastly as part of my internship experience I
worked with UNC Charlotte’s Intercultural
Outreach to help connect with a group of
MBA students from India.
I attended an array of seminars, workshops
and various other campus activities that are
being arranged for the students, faculty and
staff. I find people working in a collegial and
organized manner. During my interactions
I have tried to study and observe how these
good quality methods and procedures
practiced at UNC Charlotte can be
incorporated in my parent university,
back home.
I enjoyed life in the United States,
including traveling, shopping and cooking. I
have a passion for cooking and trying dishes
from around the world and loved seeing the
behind-the-scenes-work of the Chartwells
culinary team at UNC Charlotte. In my last
two weeks in the United States I traveled
from lush beautiful greenery of Charlotte
to the amazing Golden Gate Bridge of San
Francisco to Malibu on the Pacific Ocean,
and then to Manhattan in New York,
experiencing different yet amazingly diverse
cultures in three states.
My camera was always at-the-ready from
my first ever experience with snow and then
twice again, to the beautiful colorful spring
and in the end to the blazing hot summer,
giving me the best six months of my life.
I was recognized at 5th Annual
International Women’s Day. I made
extremely wonderful and talented mentors
and friends and had an experience which I
never thought was meant to happen. At the
end, I hope my experience will bring about
a positive change in terms of innovation
in NUST processes that enable maximum
support to students and faculty members.
Through this internship opportunity I
have tried to establish a strong partnership
through collaborative exchange programs
between NUST and UNC Charlotte.
I take this opportunity to express
my gratitude to UNC Charlotte for
providing me this international exposure.
It has enhanced my life and polished my
professional skills beyond my expectations.
The University of North Carolina
at Charlotte
9201 University Blvd.
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The Charlotte 49ers football
team wil take the field in 2013
at a brand new on-campus stadium.